UC-NRLI 


VIRGINIA 
BAPTIST 
MINISTERS 

George  Braxton  Taylor 


FIFTH 
SERIES 


VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 


FIFTH  SERIES 
1902  - 1914 

WITH  SUPPLEMENT 


BY 


GEORGE  BRAXTON  TAYLOR 


Professor  and  Resident  Chaplain  Hollins  College, 
Pastor  of  the  "Hollins  Field," 

and  author  of 

'Life  and  Letters  of  Rev.  George  Boardman  Taylor,  D.  D. ;" 
"Virginia  Baptist  Ministers,  Third  Series ;" 
"Virginia  Baptist  Ministers,  Fourth  Series." 


WITH  A  FOREWORD 

BY 

REV.  GEORGE  W.  McDANIEL,  D.  D. 


1915 

J.  P.  BELL  COMPANY,  INC. 
LYNCHBUHG.  VA. 


COPYRIGHT,  1915 
BY  GEORGE  BRAXTON  TAYLOR 


LOAN  STACK 


73 


To 

MY  BROTHER 

JAMES  SPOTSWOOD  TAYLOR,  M.  D. 
SURGEON  UNITED  STATES  NAVY 


218 


FOREWORD 

The  history  of  any  people  is  the  biographies  of  its 
great  men.  This  is  preeminently  true  of  Virginia 
Baptists.  As  the  life  of  a  state  is  seen  best  in  the  lives  of 
its  leading  citizens,  the  history  of  Virginia  Baptists  is 
fully  and  faithfully  delineated  in  the  lives  of  its  ministers. 
They  are  a  noble  succession.  From  the  days  of  Semple, 
Rice,  and  Clopton,  through  all  the  intervening  years, 
among  the  fairest  names  on  the  pages  of  history  are  the 
defenders  of  our  Faith. 

The  biography  of  the  eminently  pious  may  well  be 
regarded  with  deep  and  living  interest.  In  every  herald 
of  the  Cross  we  behold  a  monument  on  which  is  in- 
scribed the  triumph  of  the  gospel.  They  reflect  with  no 
common  luster  the  glory  of  their  divine  Redeemer. 
These  "good  ministers  of  Jesus  Christ"  have  left  their 
impress  on  the  world.  Where  is  the  state,  North,  South, 
East,  or  West,  that  has  not  been  made  a  debtor  to  the 
ministry  of  Virginia?  The  memorial  of  their  deeds  is 
recorded  in  this  series  of  biography.  Preceding  volumes 
have  been  widely  read,  and  preserve  in  permanent  form 
the  consecutive  story  of  our  people  from  the  beginning 
in  Virginia  down  to  the  present  day.  The  forthcoming 
volume  will  be  gladly  welcomed,  and  will  possess  an 
entrancing  interest  for  the  reader  of  to-day,  because  it 
holds  the  portraiture  of  those  of  our  own  time.  Many 
of  these  we  have  "seen  in  the  flesh,"  and,  having  known, 
we  love.  They  are  among  the  faithful  ministers  who 
were  pastors  of  the  churches  where  we  now  worship, 
and  who  led  many  of  us  to  Christ,  and  baptized  us,  and 
married  us.  They  buried  our  dead  and  now  they  have 


6  FOREWORD 

ceased  from  their  labors,  and  we  are  reaping  in  the  fields 
where  they  so  richly  sowed. 

Our  historian  has  here  a  happy  period  to  cover — the 
men  of  this  volume  he  has  known  in  person,  and  his 
information  comes  to  us  first  hand.  Princely  subjects 
has  he  too,  for  among  these  are  the  beloved  Tupper, 
Hawthorne,  Hatcher,  and  George  Boardman  Taylor,  his 
own  earthly  father.  There  are  countless  others  dear  to 
many  of  us,  and  faithful  in  every  relation  of  life,  whose 
biographies  adorn  these  pages. 

The  work  has  been  well  done.  It  is  fitting  that  the 
history  so  nobly  begun  and  prosecuted  through  two 
volumes  by  the  gifted  Dr.  James  B.  Taylor  should  be 
continued  so  worthily  by  his  distinguished  grandson, 
Dr.  George  Braxton  Taylor.  The  Baptists  of  Virginia, 
the  South,  and,  indeed,  of  all  the  world,  are  under  a 
lasting  obligation  to  Dr.  George  Braxton  Taylor,  the 
versatile  and  scholarly  author  of  the  forthcoming  volume, 
the  fifth  of  the  series,  and  the  third  one  to  be  edited  by 
him.  He  has,  gratuitously,  rendered  this  beautiful  serv- 
ice to  the  denomination.  With  him,  as  with  his  illustri- 
ous grandfather,  it  was  a  labor  of  love.  His  task  has  been 
pursued  with  patience,  through  careful  research,  in  pains- 
taking application,  and  with  a  discriminating  mastery  of 
details.  Who  else  among  us  has  made  so  large  a  con- 
tribution of  his  time  and  his  talent  as  has  Dr.  Taylor,  in 
this  splendid  service  so  unselfishly  rendered  to  the  great 
Baptist  Brotherhood? 

GEO.  W.  MCDANIEL. 
Pastor's  Study, 
First  Baptist  Church, 

Richmond,  Va. 
Oct.  4,  1915. 


PREFACE 

In  1837  Rev.  James  B.  Taylor  published  the  "First 
Series"  of  "Lives  of  Virginia  Baptist  Ministers."  The 
"Second  Series,"  written  by  the  same  hand,  covered  the 
period  to  1860.  Upon  the  request  of  the  Baptist  General 
Association  of  Virginia  the  "Third  Series"  and  the 
"Fourth  Series"  were  written  and  published.  Details  as 
to  the  origin  and  scope  of  these  two  "Series"  will  be 
found  in  the  preface  of  each  of  these  volumes. 

A  Resolution,  offered  by  Rev.  Dr.  E.  W.  Winfrey,  at 
the  meeting  of  the  General  Association  at  Lynchburg,  in 
1913,  and  adopted  by  the  body,  requested  the  author  of 
the  "Third"  and  "Fourth  Series"  to  prepare  a  "Fifth 
Series."  The  Association  appointed  W.  F.  Fisher,  W.  W. 
Hamilton,  and  W.  S.  Royall,  a  committee  to  cooperate 
with  the  author  in  the  matter  of  the  publication  of  the 
"Fifth  Series."  This  "Fifth  Series"  is  now  presented. 
It  contains  sketches  of  ministers  who  died  between  1902 
and  1914.  (Some  of  the  sketches  in  the  Supplement  be- 
long to  an  earlier  period. )  The  roll  may  not  be  complete, 
yet  the  effort  has  been  to  make  record  of  all.  Even  where 
men  have  so  recently  passed  away,  in  many  cases  it  has 
been  impossible  to  secure  the  facts  necessary  for  satis- 
factory accounts  of  their  lives.  In  one  or  two  instances 
relatives  were  unwilling  for  sketches  of  their  loved  ones 
to  be  published.  To  help  secure  the  five  hundred  advance 
subscriptions  necessary  to  make  the  publication  of  an 
edition  of  a  thousand  volumes  possible,  each  of  the  fol- 
lowing persons  has  subscribed  for  ten  copies :  Rev.  Dr. 
E.  W.  Winfrey,  Culpeper;  Mr.  F.  W.  Whitescarver 
Salem;  Rev.  W.  A.  Pearson,  Keysville;  Hon.  Chas.  A. 
Johnston,  Christiansburg;  Mr.  Richard  H.  Edmonds, 
Baltimore ;  Mr.  A.  J.  Chewning,  Richmond,  Va. ;  Mr. 
H.  M.  Riffe,  Elliston;  Mr.  George  A.  Diuguid,  Lynch- 
burg; Mr.  E.  E.  Tompkins,  Roanoke;  Mr.  E.  R. 
Monroe,  Brookneal ;  Rev.  Dr.  James  T.  Dickinson, 
Brooklyn;  Mr.  E.  L.  Flippo,  Roanoke;  Mr.  M.  P.  Gate- 
wood,  Pleasant  View  (Amherst  County)  ;  Rev.  F.  P. 


8  PREFACE 

Berkley   (Baptist  Church),   Covington;    Judge  W.   W 
Moffett,  Salem;   Mrs.  D.  G.  Whittinghill,  Rome. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  set  down  here  the  names  of 
all  who  have  helped  to  supply  the  data  for  these  lives. 
Not  a  few  of  these  kind  friends  are  mentioned  in  various 
sketches.  It  is  not  perhaps  invidious  to  say  that  Prof. 
W.  A.  Harris,  of  Richmond  College,  by  his  willing  and 
patient  assistance,  has  made  possible  more  than  one  of 
the  life  records  that  follow.  Dr.  R.  H.  Hudnall,  of  the 
Virginia  Polytechnic  Institute,  has  read  the  "proof"  and 
rendered  other  valuable  help. 

This  "Fifth  Series"  is  presented  with  the  sincere  hope 
that  it  will  do  good,  give  pleasure,  and,  by  perpetuating 
the  story  and  showing  the  spirit  of  noble  men  of  God, 
bring  many  young  men  to  hear  the  call  of  God  to  the 
gospel  ministry.  While  it  has  been  the  aim  to  secure 
accuracy,  there  are  doubtless  errors.  Wherever  it  was 
possible  original  sources,  such  as  Minutes  of  Associa- 
tions, family  records,  letters,  and  files  of  newspapers, 
have  been  consulted.  If  I  could  have  spent  a  considerable 
time  in  the  room  of  the  Virginia  Baptist  Historical 
Society  at  Richmond  College,  this  volume  might  have 
been  made  more  interesting.  In  the  midst  of  my  twofold 
work  as  pastor  and  professor,  among  the  blue  mountains 
at  Hollins,  with  now  and  then  a  day  in  the  archives  at 
Richmond,  by  more  than  two  years  of  work,  this  volume 
has  been  prepared.  While  it  has  not  seemed  best  to  give 
the  authority  in  a  footnote  for  each  statement,  all  of  the 
sketches  are  based  on  presumably  reliable  information. 
To  write  this  book  has  been  a  joy  and  a  blessing  to  me, 
making  me  realize  more  fully  what  I  had  known  before, 
that  the  Virginia  Baptist  Ministry  is  a  consecrated  band 
of  brothers,  who,  with  love  that  envieth  not  and  that 
thinketh  no  evil,  work  together  with  a  high  degree  of 
unselfishness,  for  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in 
Virginia  and  the  world. 

GEORGE  BRAXTON  TAYLOR. 
"The  Hill"  Hollins,  Va., 
October  4,  1915. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

ABRAHAM,  WYCLIFFE  YANCEY 87 

BALDWIN,  NOAH  CALTON 46 

BAPTIST,  EDWARD  LANGSTON 424 

BARNES.  JAMES  HENRY 229 

BARRON.  ALONZA  CHURCH 141 

BEALE,  FRANK  BROWN „ 207 

BEALER,   GEORGE   B 479 

BlLLINGSLEY,  JOSEPH  FRANCIS 403 

BOATWRIGHT,    REUBEN    BAKER _ 369 

BOSTON,  FRANCIS  RYLAND 311 

BRAXTON,  THOMAS  CORBIN _ _ 500 

BROWN,  WADE  BICKERS 154 

BUCKLES,  WILLIAM  N 201 

CARPENTER,  J.  C 497 

CLAYBROOK,  FREDERICK  WILLIAM 437 

CLOPTON,  SAMUEL  CORNELIUS 104 

COLEMAN,  JAMES  D 452 

COLLIER,  CHARLES  WELDON 435 

COOPER,  GEORGE  406 

CRIDLIN,  RANSELL  WHITE 379 

CURRY,  JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE _ 53 

DAVIDSON,  JUDSON  CAREY 427 

DAUGHTRY,  WILLIAM  BONNIE 411 

DAVIS,  JAMES  ALLISON 83 

DEANS,  JOSEPH  FRANKLIN 49 

DICKINSON,  ALFRED  ELIJAH 166 

DODGE,  HENRY  W _ 474 

EATON,  THOMAS  TREADWELL 483 

EDMONDS,    RICHARD   HENRY _ 449 

EDMONDSON,  THOMAS  F „ 120 

EDWARDS,  RICHARD _ 179 

ELLYSON,  ONAN _ 251 

EUBANK,  ALEXANDER  _ 67 

FAULKNER,  JOHN  KERR 385 

FLEET,  ALEXANDER  362 

FLIPPO,  OSCAR  PARISH _ 69 

FUNK,  BENJAMIN  239 

FUNK,  TIMOTHY  234 

9 


10  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

GARLICK,  JOSEPH  R _ 345 

GATEWOOD,  THOMAS  BRECKENRIDGE 377 

GILBERT,  ROBERT  BABBOR 364 

GREGORY,  ERNEST  THOMAS 103 

GRIMSLEY,  SIMEON  U ~ 177 

GRIMSLEY,  THOMAS  F 365 

GWALTNEY,  JAMES  LANCASTER 501 

HART,  JOSEPH  WASHINGTON _ 433 

HASH,  ALBERT  GRANT 326 

HATCHER,  HARVEY , 121 

HATCHER,  WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE _ 348 

HAWTHORNE,  JAMES  BOARDMAN 253 

HAYMORE,  ROBERT  DANIEL _ 274 

HEALY,  NATHAN  503 

HESS,  JAMES 163 

HUME,  THOMAS,  JR 337 

HUNDLEY,  JOHN  WALKER _ 442 

JAMES,  BENJAMIN  CARTER 164 

JAMES,  CHARLES  FENTON 38 

JONES,   FRERRE  HOUSTON 314 

JONES,   JAMES   E 330 

JONES,  JOHN  WILLIAM 218 

KEELING,  HENRY  _ 504 

KEMPER,  JAMES  FOLEY 287 

KENDRICK,  JOSEPH  B _ 374 

KERN,  I.  T 212 

KINGSFORD,  EDWARD  490 

LAMB,  JOHN  MOODY 127 

LANCASTER,  JOHN  FRAZIER „ 273 

LEONARD,  JOSEPH  _ 281 

LEWIS,  THOMAS  W _ 13Q 

LUCK,  JAMES  PASCHAL 392 

LUKE,  ISAAC  V 482 

LUNSFORD,  ROBERT  RHODAM _ 91 

MAIDEN,  JAMES  FRANKLIN _ 94 

MARTIN,  JOHN  W 298 

MASON,  SAMUEL  GRIFFIN 241 

MASSIE,  SAMUEL  P 441 

MAY,  ISAAC  NEWTON 367 

McCowN,  JOHN  W 244 

MCDONALD,  HENRY 99 

MEADOR,  CHASTAIN  CLARK _ 114 

MlLBOURNE.  LODOWIC  RALPH....  - 149 


CONTENTS  11 

PAGE 

MUNDEN,  NATHAN  M 89 

MUNDAY,  JAMES  ALEXANDER 269 

MURDOCH,  JOSEPH  RYLAND 147 

NEWMAN,  THERON  WALLACE 97 

NORRIS,  CALVIN  ROAH 431 

OWEN,  AUSTIN  EVERETT 156 

PARRISH,  MADISON  E 277 

PEARSON,  THOMAS  P _ 286 

PENICK,  WILLIAM  SYDNOR _ 181 

PENNINGTON,  BALLARD  PRESTON _ 480 

PERRY,  JOHN  MAJOR 1 10 

PETTY,  HENRY  108 

POLLARD,  JOHN „ 135 

QUARLES,  JOHN  RHODES 242 

RAGLAND,  HUGH  DAVIS 421 

RANDOLPH,  JOHN  THOMPSON _ 144 

READ,   MASHALL  W _ 79 

REV NOLDS,  ALBERT  D _ 323 

RHODES,  WALTER 328 

RICE,  ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER „ 43 

RYLAND,  CHARLES  HILL 455 

RYLAND,  JOHN  WILLIAM 125 

SALLADE,  JACOB _ 279 

SANFORD,  ROBERT  BAILEY 248 

SCOTT,  THOMAS  D _ „. .  268 

SELFE,  WILSON  V 376 

SETTLE,  VINCENT  THOMAS „ 477 

SHAVER,  DAVID _ 498 

SHEPHERD,  THOMAS  BENTON 161 

S.NKAD,  GEORGE  HOLM  AN 306 

SPEIGHT,  JOHN  ALEXANDER 389 

STRATON,  HENRY  DUNDAS  DOUGLAS _ _ 446 

STUART,  CHARLES  EDWIN _ 284 

TAYLOR,  GEORGE  BOARDMAN 187 

TAYLOR,  JAMES  BARNETT,  JR. _ _ 300 

TAYLOR,  JAMES  IRA _ „ 296 

THAMES,  TRAVIS  BUTHY „...  487 

THOMAS,  JAMES  MAGRUDER 400 

THOMAS,  JOHN  RICHARD _.  413 

THOMPSON,  S.  H 317 

TRIBBLE.  HENRY  WISE....  ...  319 


12  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

TUCKER,  R.  ATWELL 65 

TUPPER,  HENRY  ALLEN 13 

TURPIN,  JOHN  BROADUS _ 213 

WARD,  JOHN  WYATT _ 133 

WARREN,  PATRICK  THOMAS 334 

WEBB,  W.  R 237 

WHARTON,  MORTON  BRYAN 203 

WHITSITT,  WILLIAM  HETH „ 290 

WILKINSON,  JOHN   ROBERT _ 332 

WILLIAMS,  GEORGE  FRANKLIN 415 

WILLIAMS,  WILLIAM  HARRISON 80 

WILLIAMSON,  ROBERT ...._ 282 

WlLLINGHAM,  ROBERT  JoSIAH _ 462 

WILLIS,  JOHN  MILTON _ 231 

WILSON,  M.  A 112 

WOODFIN,  AUGUSTUS  BEVERLY 395 

WRENN,  C  E 289 


VIRGINIA    BAPTIST    MINISTERS 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER 
1828-1902 

Autobiography  is  probably  the  best  biography.  A 
request  once  came  to  Dr.  Tupper  from  a  magazine  for  a 
sketch  of  his  life.  In  declining  the  request  he  said:  "A 
man's  true  life  can  not  go  on  paper,  and  one  not  true 
should  not  go."  Yet  a  record  of  his  life,  which  Dr.  Tup- 
per wrote,  probably  with  no  idea  of  publication,  ought  to 
be  published.  Until  that  is  done,  the  extracts  which  fol- 
low give  interesting  pictures  of  a  noble  and  highly  useful 
life. 

"I  am  impressed  by  the  truth  which  is  hinted  in  con- 
sciousness, made  plain  by  reason,  and  clearly  stated  in 
the  Word  of  God,  that  every  man  must  give  an  account 
of  himself  unto  God.  .  .  .  According  to  the  family 
Bible,  I  was  born  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  on  the  29th  of 
February,  1828.  Believing  in  a  minute  Providence,  I 
presume  that  there  was  some  reason  why  I  should  be 
born  in  Leap  Year,  but  as  I  have  never  noticed  anything 
in  my  life  or  character  which  seemed  to  have  any  relation 
to  this  odd  period  of  time,  not  even  the  oddness  for  which 
many  of  my  father's  family  were  noted,  I  shall  pass  by 
my  natal  day,  which,  during  my  boyhood,  was  always 
specially  celebrated,  with  the  mere  record  of  its  date. 

"I  do  not  believe  in  the  transmission  of  grace,  but  in 
my  anxious  desire  and  hope  with  regard  to  myself,  as  a 
child  of  God,  I  can  not  but  feel  a  lively  satisfaction  that 
the  whole  of  my  mother's  family,  so  far  as  I  know  of 
them,  were  godly  people.  I  knew  my  maternal  grand- 
mother and  can  testify  as  to  her  pious  living  and  hopeful 

13 


14  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

dying.  The  journal  of  my  grandfather,  Jacob  Yoer, 
breathes  throughout  the  spirit  of  divine  grace,  which 
accords  with  the  evidence  of  my  noble  mother,  who  never 
tires  of  her  praises  of  her  father's  deep  and  devoted  spir- 
itual character.  He  counseled  his  children  to  read  the 
Bible  on  their  knees.  They  were  both  Charlestonians  by 
birth  and  members  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  that 
city.  Their  remains  are  lying  in  the  yard  of  that  church. 
My  great-grandmother,  on  my  mother's  side,  I 
shall  die  believing  that  I  recollect.  For  many  years  this 
notion  was  a  subject  of  laughter  in  the  family,  but  I 
could  never  be  laughed  out  of  the  testimony  of  my 
memory,  in  which  I  have  always  had  more  confidence 
than  in  any  other  of  my  mental  faculties.  The  Nullifica- 
tion of  1832  I  remember  perfectly — the  preparing  of 
cockades  and  sticks,  the  smuggling  in  of  boxes  of  arms, 
the  drilling  of  the  boys,  the  street  fights,  and  the  popular 
songs,  one  of  which  was : 

"*H is  a  gentleman, 

Who  rides  in  a  gig ; 

P is  a  blackguard 

That  runs  on  a  pig.' 

"The  birth  of  my  brother,  Tristram,  who  is  some  three 
years  my  junior,  I  distinctly  remember — rather,  I  dis- 
tinctly remember  that  I  cried  for  the  baby  and  wished 
to  lock  him  up  in  what  was  called  'my  top  drawer.' 
.  .  .  In  the  Lutheran  churchyard  of  Charleston  the 
epitaphs  of  these  pious  great-grandparents,  who  were 
natives  of  Heidelberg,  may  be  read.  .  .  .  If  I  can 
not  hope  for  a  godly  life  on  the  ground  of  the  peculiar 
piety  of  my  mother's  family,  may  I  not  possibly  trace 
the  ardent  sentiments  of  my  heart  as  a  Baptist  with 
regard  to  religious  liberty  to  my  ancestry  of  'obstinate 
Lutherans',  and  with  regard  to  missions,  to  the  fact  that 
three  or  more  successive  generations  of  my  father's 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  15 

family  were  devoted  to  this  work?  The  record  of  my 
father's  family  [is]  a  document  over  forty  feet  long  and 
tracing  the  family  through  some  500  members  to  the 
year  1551,  when  they  were  driven  by  Charles  V  from 
Hesse  Cassel  to  England,  and  .  .  .  the  Island  of 
Guernsey.  .  .  .  The  Records  .  .  .  show  that 
Thomas  Tupper,  who  was  born  in  Sandwich,  England, 
and  who  came  to  this  country  before  1637,  was  greatly 
interested  in  the  welfare  of  the  Indians.  .  .  .  Died 
March  28,  1676,  aged  upwards  of  98  years.  His  wife 
died  this  same  year,  aged  90.  ...  [He]  filled  various 
offices,  besides  giving  much  of  his  time  to  the  work  of 
gospelizing  the  Indians.  .  .  .  Tupper  appears  in  the 
original  form  as  Toppfer  .  .  .  called  Toutperd  in 
France,  and  by  corruption  Toupard  in  the  Netherlands, 
whilst  in  Germany  and  England  and  America  the  name 
assumed  the  form  so  familiar  to  the  public  as  the  designa- 
tion of  the  author  of  'Proverbial  Philosophy'.  .  .  . 
The  Family  Records  show  ...  the  motto  on  the 
Coat  of  Arms  of  the  family,  'L'espoir  est  me  force.' 
.  .  .  It  is  written  of  Thomas  Tupper,  Sr. :  'A  town 
meeting  6  mo.,  7,  1644,  warned  by  order  of  the  Select- 
men to  take  course  for  repairing  the  meeting-house; 
whereupon  divers  persons  engaged  freely  to  pay  in  goods 
and  merchantable  Indian  corn  the  next  April  to  Thomas 
Tupper  for  as  many  bolts  as  would  shingle  the  old 
meeting-house.  The  church  was  composed  of  Mr.  Tup- 
per and  ten  others.  ...  He  officiated  without 
ordination  for  a  time  .  .  .  then  he  turned  his  atten- 
tion to  the  Indians.  ...  At  this  period,  1767,  Mr. 
Elisha  Tupper  .  .  .  was  engaged  in  missionary 
efforts  among  the  Indians.  .  .  .  Even  in  these  early 
times  these  independent  folk  did  not  like  to  be  taxed  for 
the  gospel.  .  .  In  1745  Medod  Tupper  and 
twenty- four  others  attending  a  meeting  in  the  meeting- 


16  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

house  in  the  western  part  of  the  town  were  petitioners  to 
be  excused  from  paying  for  the  support  of  Mr.  Fessen- 
don. 

"My  father,  Tristram  Tupper,  settled  in  Charleston, 
S.  C.,  in  1810,  when  he  married  my  mother,  Eliza 
Yoer  (original  name,  Jover),  in  1816,  and  died 
with  the  fall  of  the  city  of  his  love,  to  whose  inter- 
ests he  had  been  devoted  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
in  1865.  For  sixty  years  the  Commission  House  of 
T.  Tupper,  and  T.  Tupper  and  Sons,  which  for  many 
years  sold  most  of  the  produce  sent  from  Louisiana  to 
Charleston,  was  the  synonym  of  commercial  honor  and 
ability.  My  father  was  the  author  and  finisher  of  the 
South  Carolina  Railroad  from  Charleston  to  Augusta, 
Ga.,  which,  when  completed,  was  the  longest  railroad  in 
the  world,  and  of  which  he  was  president  for  many  years. 
Mainly  through  his  influence  the  First  Baptist  Church 
edifice,  one  of  the  finest  structures  in  the  city,  was  built. 
.  .  .  Excepting  my  eldest  brother,  born  in  1817,  all 
of  my  nine  brothers  and  sisters,  with  myself,  were  born 
in  the  old  home,  No.  52  Tradd  Street.  And  a  happy 
home  it  was.  My  father  was  a  wise  man.  His  maxims 
of  wisdom  were  strikingly  original.  .  .  .  When  I 
was  going  away  from  home  he  wrote  on  a  sheet  of  paper : 
'Virtue  is  happiness ;  vice  is  misery.'  When  the  children 
departed  from  wisdom's  way  they  found  a  standing 
rebuke  in  the  life  and  character  of  their  father.  .  .  . 
My  mother  .  .  .  was  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
intellectual  women  I  ever  knew.  .  .  .  Her  parents 
sent  her  from  Charleston  to  be  educated  in  Philadelphia, 
where  she  gave  much  attention  to  the  Fine  Arts  and 
formed  the  acquaintance  of  some  of  the  most  distin- 
guished men  of  the  times.  My  mother's  journal,  in 
several  quarto  volumes,  which  she  kept  for  nearly  two- 
thirds  of  a  century,  will  be,  and  is,  I  presume,  the  com- 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  17 

pletest  history  extant  of  Baptist  affairs  in  Charleston. 
.  .  .  The  great  longing  of  mother's  heart  was  the 
intellectual  and  religious  education  of  her  children,  while 
a  breach  of  decorum  was  almost  a  crime  in  her  eyes. 
Her  own  manners  were  loveliness  itself,  and  she  con- 
trolled more  powerfully  by  her  smiles  than  she  could 
have  done  with  a  rod  of  iron.  .  .  .  Father  seldom 
commended.  .  .  .  My  father  was  a  man  of  few, 
direct  words.  .  .  .  Thomas  Tupper  'ranted,'  says 
the  Annals,  and  was  touched  with  fanaticism.  My  father 
was  the  antipode  of  this,  but  his  children  are  not  like 
their  paternal  parent.  I  know  that  naturally  I  arn  given 
to  hyperbole.  .  .  .  My  father  was  the  most  accurate 
man,  in  all  business,  I  ever  knew.  ...  At  table  and 
in  the  family  circle  money  was  rarely  or  never  men- 
tioned. To  speak  of  the  cost  of  things  and  the  like  was 
regarded  a  lack  of  good  taste,  rather  it  was  never  done 
because  somehow  it  had  never  been  done  and  we  never 
thought  of  doing  it.  ...  In  my  father's  office  the 
lessons  of  business  order  and  carefulness  were  positive 
and  vigorous.  A  clerk  would  have  been  instantly  dis- 
missed for  making  the  least  deviation  in  the  price  of  any 
commodity  for  sale.  .  .  .  My  father  made  all  of  his 
boys  keep  petty  cash  books.  ...  In  the  midst  of  my 
college  course  he  took  me  into  his  office,  much  to  the  dis- 
tress of  mother  and  my  own  dissatisfaction,  and  kept  me 
there  for  two  years  and  until  1  became  the  bookkeeper. 
This  I  regard  now  as  the  most  important  two  years  of 
my  education.  .  .  .  For  thirty  years  I  have  kept  a 
cash  book  and  can  tell  at  any  time  my  income  and 
expenditure  at  any  period  during  that  time.  Last  year 
I  had  occasion  to  inquire  on  a  point  of  that  kind,  and  in 
a  few  minutes  I  found  that  in  twenty  years  I  had 
expended  some  $250,000,  of  which  amount  some 
$110,000  had  been  given  to  the  Lord.  .  .  .  The 


18  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

counsel  which  my  father  gave  to  all  his  sons  was :  'Avoid, 
if  possible,  all  money  responsibilities  for  others.'  Before 
he  would  take  a  son  into  business — and  five  of  them  were 
first  and  last  in  the  firm  of  T.  Tupper  and  Sons — he 
made  him  agree  in  writing  that  he  would  never  endorse 
a  note,  out  of  the  regular  order  of  the  business.  He 
would  never  advise  a  son  to  go  into  a  bank  or  any  busi- 
ness of  the  kind.  .  .  .  Scarcely  a  week  passed  in  my 
childhood  and  youth  that  company  was  not  invited  to  the 
house.  Mother's  rule  was  that  all  children  should  be 
seen.  No  child  was  allowed  to  run  when  company  called 
or  came  on  invitation.  If  we  did  no  more,  we  had  to 
come  in  and  bow  and  retire.  .  .  .  Most  of  us  made 
several  trips  to  the  North  in  our  youth,  and  all  of  the 
family  have  since,  I  believe,  delighted  in  this  recreation. 
I  became  too  fond  of  company  and  the  dance,  and  could 
in  my  younger  days  only  check  the  love  of  society  by  the 
conviction  that  its  excess  is  hurtful  to  better  things. 

"At  three  years  old  I  went  to  the  infant  class  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  under  the  pastorate  then  of  Rev. 
Basil  Manly,  Sr.,  in  which  school  I  remained  until  I  went 
to  Madison  University  to  study  theology.  In  this  school 
I  made  the  acquaintance  of  Jas.  P.  Boyce  and  of  his 
sister,  now  my  wife,  and  by  whose  influence  I  was  led  to 
take  a  class  in  the  Sabbath  school  even  before  I  had 
made  a  profession  of  Christ.  I  only  remark  here  that  the 
pointed  questions  of  my  pupils  excited  very  solemn 
inquiries  in  my  mind.  .  .  .  One  of  the  prominent 
features  of  the  school  was  the  Mite  Box  to  raise  money 
for  the  heathen.  My  Sunday-school  teacher  was  my 
first  day-school  instructor.  Her  method  was  peripatetic, 
as  we  learned  our  alphabet  and  our  spelling  walking 
around  a  circle  and  singing  out  the  letters  and  the  sylla- 
bles in  more  or  less  musical  or  unmusical  accent.  To 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  19 

two  other  ladies  I  went  to  school  before  I  was  eight  years 
old :  Mrs.  Hitchborn,  a  neighbor,  who  used  to  give  me 
cracked  sugar  when  I  cried,  and  Mrs.  Levy  Yates,  whose 
school  was  located  on  the  edge  of  the  water,  which  is 
now  covered  by  the  Park  or  South  Battery,  and  from 
which  water  I  was  once  rescued  when  drowning,  although 
I  begged  my  rescuer  to  save  my  hat  first  that  mother 
might  not  know  that  I  had  been  in  to  swim.  A  penalty 
of  the  school  .  .  .  was  to  stand  up  on  a  chair  and 
read  the  Bible,  which  reading  was  not  always  done  with 
the  most  seemly  state  of  mind.  Being  laughed  at  when 
in  that  elevated  position  by  two  girls,  I  jumped  down, 
and,  holding  their  heads  together,  kissed  them  both,  for 
which  offense  one  of  the  young  ladies,  now  Mrs.  B.  P., 
did  not  forgive  me  for  many  years.  Another  penalty  was 
being  locked  up  in  the  pantry.  When  thus  incarcerated  I 
forced  an  apple  whole  into  my  mouth,  which  forbidden 
fruit  had  to  be  cut  out  piece  by  piece.  .  .  .  In  a  copy 
of  Goldsmith's  Natural  History,  which  I  received  as  a 
prize,  I  see  that  I  was  at  Rev.  Dyer  Ball's  school  in  1836, 
when  I  was  eight  years  old.  Dr.  Ball,  shortly  after  this, 
went  to  Asia,  where  he  was  a  missionary  for  many  years. 
As  I  was  too  young  to  recite  with  the  boys,  I  'said  my 
lessons'  downstairs  to  Mrs.  Ball  with  her  two  little  girls, 
Mary  and  Caroline.  .  .  .  While  at  this  school  I  had 
a  little  moral  experience  which  may  not  be  out  of  place. 
On  the  inside  of  a  drawer  of  an  old  washstand,  which 
may  be  seen  now  in  the  attic  of  our  old  home  in  Charles- 
ton, are  the  figures  2068.  That  number  indicates  the 
marbles  which  I  had  won,  and  which  the  drawer  con- 
tained. My  sister  asking  me,  'What  is  the  difference 
between  winning  marbles  and  gambling?'  I  took  my 
spoils  to  school  and  divided  them  among  the  boys,  and 
since  that  day  have  never  offered  or  received  a  wager. 
.  .  At  the  High  School  my  most  intimate  friend 


20  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

was  Henry  Hannibal  Timrod,  the  Poet.  His  middle 
name  he  subsequently  omitted.  He  was  the  most 
passionate,  the  most  high  spirited,  the  most  eloquent  boy 
I  knew.  .  .  .  His  lofty  honor  was  a  constant 
inspiration  to  my  soul.  His  love  of  the  beautiful  and  the 
true  made  my  mother  to  admire  him  as  the  companion 
of  her  boy.  At  this  time  I  excelled  in  sports,  running, 
riding,  dancing,  swimming,  pistol  shooting,  etc.  I  was 
more  noted  for  them  than  as  a  student.  .  .  .  While 
I  was  at  Charleston  College  there  were  three  presidents : 
Colonel  Finley,  Judge  Mitchell  King,  and  Dr.  Wm.  T. 
Brantley.  ...  I  have  nothing  to  be  proud  of  in  my 
college  course.  Imbibing  skeptical  notions,  I  preached 
them  to  knots  of  students  as  I  had  opportunity.  When  I 
repented  I  tried  to  undo  the  mischief.  About  this  time 
I  took  to  public  lecturing  on  Temperance,  though  but  a 
boy.  In  this  I  received  at  least  the  benefit  of  being  taken 
down  by  seeing  my  dear  grandmother  weeping  while  I 
was  telling  a  funny  story  and  by  being  told  that  the  'puff' 
in  the  next  day's  Courier  was  written  before  my  address 
was  delivered. 

"After  our  conversion,  Boyce  and  I  started  for 
Madison  University.  In  New  York  we  heard  from  Dr. 
Conant  that  we  must  make  up  a  quarter's  Hebrew  in 
three  weeks,  as  the  Senior  Class  had  studied  it  the  last 
term.  Boyce's  eyes  being  weak,  he  returned  home  and 
married.  I  hastened  to  Hamilton,  engaged  a  private 
tutor,  with  whom  I  went  through  Gesenius'  Hebrew 
Grammar,  in  the  time  allotted.  In  this  study  I  believe  I 
stood  respectably,  as  Dr.  Conant  told  me  I  made  a  mis- 
take in  not  accepting  the  chair  of  Hebrew  in  Furman 
University.  My  intercourse  with  Drs.  Kendrick,  Conant, 
Eaton,  Maginnis,  and  others,  and,  above  all,  with  the 
sainted  Dr.  Kendrick,  Sr.,  though  bedridden,  was  a  good 
education  in  itself.  ...  At  the  University  the  spirit 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  21 

of  missions  was  ablaze.  ...  I  was  corresponding 
secretary  of  the  Society  of  Inquiry,  which  tended  to 
strengthen  my  resolve  to  give  myself  to  the  work  of 
preaching  Jesus  to  the  nations.  ...  I  received  from 
the  University  the  degrees  of  A.  B.,  A.  M.,  and  D.  D. 

"In  1837  Dr.  Fuller  preached  in  our  church  from  the 
words:  'My  son,  give  me  thy  heart/  I  wept  until  I  was 
ashamed.  Until  I  became  a  professor  of  religion  I  was 
constantly  afraid,  on  going  to  church,  that  I  would  be 
convicted  and  expose  myself  to  the  people.  This  fear 
often  made  me  seek  the  gallery,  though  contrary  to  the 
rule  of  the  family.  ...  Dr.  Fuller,  with  Mr.  Craw- 
ford, the  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  and  Mr.  Wyer,  was 
conducting  a  protracted  meeting.  I  went  to  the  door,  but 
was  afraid  to  enter.  Next  morning  before  breakfast  I 
went  and  took  my  seat  by  the  door.  Mr.  Crawford  came 
to  me.  The  devil  took  possession  of  me  and  I  began 
with  my  skeptical  arguments.  He  sent  Mr.  Wyer  to  me. 
Though  very  tender  and  affectionate,  he  finally  arose  and 
said :  'Young  man,  your  infidelity  will  damn  you.'  I  was 
greatly  offended.  Instead  of  going  home  to  breakfast,  I 
walked  out  of  town  full  of  anger  and  with  the  words 
ringing  in  my  heart — 'Will  damn  you.'  I  concluded  that 
1  would  be  damned.  ...  I  went  again  to  the  meet- 
ing. Dr.  Fuller  spoke  to  me.  Sent  Mr.  Wyer  to  me, 
who  said :  'You  are  not  far  from  the  Kingdom/  but  I 
knew  that  I  would  be  damned  .  .  .  talked  wildly  to 
mother  about  my  sins  and  ruin.  Went  to  father's  office, 
paced  up  and  down  the  back  store  praying  for  deliverance. 
Tut  (my  brother  Tristram)  came  in  dancing  and  singing. 
1  burst  into  tears  and  told  him:  'I  will  be  damned,  but 
you  must  not!'  I  made  him  kneel  down  and  prayed  for 
him.  Then  1  hid  myself  in  the  hayloft  and  poured  out 
my  distressed  spirit  to  God.  Going  home,  I  found  that 
Dr.  Fuller  had  left  for  me  James'  Anxious  Inquirer. 


22  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

The  devil  again  entered  me.  I  vowed  I  would  not  go 
again  to  hear  Dr.  Fuller  and  I  would  resist  salvation  even 
if  it  were  forced  upon  me.  Mother  chided  me  kindly  but 
wisely.  My  conscience  pricked  me.  My  sins  seemed  like 
a  mountain  crushing  me  to  perdition.  I  read  The 
Anxious  Inquirer  almost  all  night.  I  was  relieved  and 
alarmed.  The  idea  of  a  false  hope  terrified  me.  In  the 
morning  I  went  to  the  Inquiry  Meeting.  In  reply  to  my 
fears  Dr.  Fuller  said :  'If  you  go  to  hell  I  will  go  with 
you  and  we  shall  preach  Jesus  there  until  they  turn  us 
out,  and  then  where  will  we  go?'  For  several  weeks  I 
was  bowed  down  because  I  could  not  feel  my  sins.  On 
Sunday  night  I  went  to  hear  Mr.  Francis  Johnson.  He 
preached  on  'The  Law  of  God.'  I  was  overwhelmed 
and  fell  down  on  my  knees  in  the  pew  and  burst  into 
tears.  .  .  .  Next  morning  I  went  to  see  Mr.  John- 
son. He  said  I  was  converted  as  much  as  he.  I  pro- 
tested. He  bade  me  go  to  my  closet  and  plead  before 
God  the  fulfilment  of  his  promise  in  the  9th  verse  of 
Romans  X.  I  did  so.  I  believed  and  rejoiced  in  the 
word :  'Thou  shalt  be  saved.'  The  whole  world  was 
changed.  It  was  a  delight  to  live.  I  could  have  encom- 
passed the  universe  in  my  love.  ...  At  the  church 

door  next  day  I  saw .     I  offered  him  my  hand. 

In  an  hour  or  so  he  rode  up  and  handed  me  a  note,  asking 
if  my  hand  was  offered  as  a  retraction  of  the  insult  of 
cutting  his  acquaintance.  I  drew  him  upstairs  and 
implored  him  to  repent  and  believe.  I  carried  him  to  see 
Dr.  Fuller.  We  prayed  together  and  were  baptized 
together  by  Dr.  Fuller  on  the  evening  of  the  17th  of 
April,  1846.  .  .  .  The  night  I  was  baptized  Dr.  Ful- 
ler said  to  the  congregation :  'This  young  man  wants  to 
go  to  Africa,  but  we  need  him  at  home.'  .  .  .  Dr. 
Fuller  preached  nightly  for  six  weeks.  Some  500  con- 
verts. Two  hundred  joined  Baptist  churches.  Our  daily 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  23 

sunrise  prayer-meetings  continued  for  two  years,  until 
all  of  us  who  led  went  away  to  study  for  the  ministry. 

n 

After  his  conversion  Mr.  Tupper  passed  through  a 
period  of  doubt  and  anguish.  He  questioned  his  con- 
version and  refused  to  hear  a  voice  that  called  him  to  the 
gospel  ministry.  At  last,  however,  he  came  out  into  a 
large  place  where  there  was  peace  and  joy.  His  journal 
continues : 

"When  I  was  a  little  boy  I  used  to  play  'preaching'  in 
the  attic  story,  the  children  being  the  congregation  and 
I  the  preacher.  I  often  told  my  friends  that  I  intended 
being  a  lawyer  until  I  was  thirty  years  old  and  then  I 
would  enter  the  ministry,  as  Dr.  Fuller  did. 
Long  before  I  had  any  notions  of  religion  I  used  to  prac- 
tice my  gifts  as  a  preacher  in  my  room.  ...  I  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  saving  of  souls,  and  felt  no 
stronger  desire  than  to  see  the  world  brought  to  Jesus. 
I  thought  seriously  on  the  matter  and  determined  to  give 
myself  to  the  work.  .  .  .  Finally,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  Brother  Kendrick,  it  was  concluded  that  Boyce 
and  I  go  to  Madison  University,  Hamilton,  New  York. 
.  .  .  Of  all  the  preachers  who  made  deep  impressions 
at  Hamilton,  Dr.  Fuller  was  the  greatest.  I  doubt  if 
there  was  his  equal  in  the  pulpit  since  the  days  of  the 
Apostle  Paul.  But  my  head  is  swallowed  up  by  my  heart 
whenever  I  think  or  speak  of  this,  my  father  in  the  Lord. 
My  course  was  in  the  midst  of  the  fierce  struggle  which 
resulted  in  the  founding  of  Rochester  University.  .  . 
God  overruled  the  storm  and  Hamilton  was  saved  while 
Rochester  was  gained.  .  .  . 

"On  November  1,  1849,  I  was  married  at  Kalmia, 
S.  C,  the  summer  residence  of  Hon.  Kerr  Boyce,  to  his 
pious  and  intelligent  daughter,  Nannie  Johnstone.  I  had 
known  her  from  early  childhood.  We  were  reared  in  the 


24  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

same  Sabbath  school.  Our  parents'  pews  in  the  church 
were  almost  opposite  to  each  other.  .  .  .  Fre- 
quently she  dressed  in  white.  I  often  thought  that  the 
garb  was  a  fit  and  beautiful  emblem  of  her  simple  and 
pure  character.  The  plainness  of  her  dressing  was 
always  to  be  noted  in  view  of  the  fact  that  she  was 
literally  doted  on  by  her  father,  who  was  probably  the 
wealthiest  man  in  the  city,  and  known  by  all  to  be  devoted 
to  his  children.  .  .  .  She  was  really  'the  pious,  con- 
sistent little  member  of  the  church.'  She  visited  the  poor, 
sought  children  for  the  Sabbath  school,  and  was  ready 
for  every  good  word  and  work.  ...  I  was  called  to 
the  pastorate  of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Graniteville,  S.  C. 
.  Was  ordained  pastor  of  the  church,  by  Rev. 
Wm.  Hard  and  Rev.  Mr.  Brooks,  on  the  first  Sabbath 
of  the  year  1850.  .  .  .  My  work  at  Graniteville  was 
partly  missionary  and  entirely  gratuitous  and  this  greatly 
delighted  me.  ...  It  was  a  first  love  indeed.  Fresh 
from  the  University,  my  habits  of  study  were  continued 
and  I  gave  much  time  to  the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  In 
the  afternoon  I  usually  preached  an  expository  sermon, 
and  in  this  way  took  the  church  through  most  of  the 
epistles  of  the  New  Testament.  On  Saturday  night  I 
met  with  as  many  as  would  attend  and  examined  them 
on  the  Scripture  expounded  the  Sabbath  before. 
My  health  seemed  to  fail.  ...  I  had  to  spend  the 
winter  of  1852  in  Florida.  Dr.  Geddings,  of  Charleston, 
said  I  must  never  preach  again. 

"Entered  upon  the  pastorate  of  the  Baptist  Church  at 
Washington,  Ga.,  in  the  spring  of  1853.  .  .  .  There 
we  had  the  loveliest  of  homes.  .  .  .  There  a  devoted 
church,  in  which  I  never  noticed  a  ripple  of  discontent, 
loved  us,  and  a  whole  town  called  me  Bishop. 
Washington  is  one  of  the  oldest  towns  in  Georgia.  It 
was  named  when  Washington  was  a  colonel.  The  streets 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPKk  25 

were  made  narrower  to  give  better  defence  against  the 
Indians.  .  .  .  Between  the  denominations  the  ut- 
most cordiality  prevailed.  .  .  .  The  whole  com- 
munity became  a  spiritual  family.  ...  No  man 
c « mid  be  more  perfectly  identified  with  a  place  than  1  was 
with  'dear  old  Washington.'  For  many  years  I  preached 
three  times  on  the  Sabbath.  .  .  .  For  some  fourteen 
years  I  preached  on  Sunday  afternoon  to  the  children. 
Phi  Upsilon  became  an  institution  of  Washing- 
ton. It  was,  as  the  mystic  name  signifies,  a  Literary 
Temperance  Society.  The  meetings  were  held  in  a  cot- 
tage in  my  grove.  Grove  extensive  .  .  .  some  three 
hundred  cedars  that  I  had  planted  .  .  .  garden 
.  .  .  flowers.  .  .  .  'Labyrinth'  modeled  after 
that  of  ancient  Crete.  .  .  .  Grounds  thrown  open  to 
the  public.  .  .  .  Before  the  War  I  preached  every 
Sunday  and  Tuesday  night  to  the  colored  people  and  had 
appointments  on  the  plantations  in  the  vicinity.  This 
was  service  in  which  my  heart  rejoiced.  ...  I  had 
a  large  colored  membership  and  many  of  them  devoted 
Christians.  .  .  .  My  morning  sermons  were  pre- 
pared with  care.  Friend  B—  — ,  an  elder  in  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  would  criticize  them  as  too  abstract. 
But  I  could  not  or  did  not  reform.  .  .  .  Revivals  of 
the  most  blessed  kind  were  enjoyed.  .  .  .  The 
monthly  Concert  of  Prayer  for  the  salvation  of  the  world 
was  regularly  kept  up.  ...  The  church  was 
thoroughly  indoctrinated  on  the  subject  of  missions,  as 
their  large  contributions  indicated.  But  frankness  re- 
quires me  to  say  that  in  the  report  of  those  donations 
were  included  my  support  of  a  missionary  among  the 
Indians  and  another  in  Africa,  or  amounts  equivalent  to 
such  support.  ...  I  felt  myself  greatly  indebted 
for  a  criticism  on  my  early  preaching  at  W—  — ,  viz. : 
that  /  talked  to  sinners  as  if  I  were  mad.  .  .  .  Our 


26  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

house,  an  imposing  building,  was  a  square  edifice  on  a 
very  high  foundation  approached  by  winding  steps  in 
front  and  surrounded  by  a  colonnade  on  all  four  sides 
that  reached  from  the  lower  floor  to  the  balustrade  which 
rose  above  the  roof  of  the  house.  .  .  .  Grounds 
extensive,  some  fifteen  acres  in  pleasure  grounds  and  use- 
ful meadow.  .  .  .  Children  trained  at  home  or  in 
private  schools.  ...  A  trip  to  Europe  made  a 
momentary  break  in  our  Washington  life.  .  .  .  My 
library  was  of  good  quality,  some  1,500  volumes;  the 
children  fond  of  reading.  There  were  few  things  that 
we  cared  for  or  coveted  beyond  our  constant  reach,  save 
more  knowledge  of  Jesus,  more  experience  of  his  love, 
and  more  perfect  assurance  of  our  election  and  calling. 
But,  happy  as  I  was,  I  felt  that  I  might  be  more  usefully 
employed.  .  .  .  The  subject  of  missions  haunted 
me.  As  chairman  of  the  Executive  Committee  on  Mis- 
sions, formed  by  the  Georgia  Association,  I  had  some- 
thing to  do  to  supply  missionaries  and  sustain  them,  but 
I  wanted  more.  .  .  .  Finally  I  formed  the  plan  of 
a  self-sustaining  colony  to  Japan.  I  paid  two  visits  to 
Dr.  Taylor  (Cor.  Sec.  F.  M.  Bd.)  at  Richmond,  Va.  I 
corresponded  with  the  United  States  Ministers  in  the 
East.  .  .  .  Some  $250,000  would  be  invested  for 
the  benefit  of  the  mission.  But  the  way  was  not  clear; 
the  War  came  on,  and  the  cherished  plan,  like  my  others 
for  missionary  work,  was  unrealized. 

"In  the  principles  on  which  the  War  was  fought  I 
was  a  South  Carolinian  thoroughly  imbued.  I  went 
down  to  Sullivan's  Island  in  the  boat  which  bore  the 
orders  of  General  Beaureguard  to  open  fire  on  Fort 
Sumter  and  stayed  behind  the  battery  and  along  the 
beach  until  Major  Anderson's  garrison,  who  fought  like 
heroes,  mounted  the  battlement  and  threw  up  their  hands 
in  surrender.  I  received  from  President  Davis  a  com- 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  27 

mission  as  chaplain  of  the  North  Georgia  Regiment,  but 
declined  any  compensation. 

"To  breakfast  at  ten  o'clock  is  not  very  usual  in  camp, 
yet  the  9th  Georgia  has  been  so  fashionable  to-day.  As 
ordered,  we  left  late  encampment  yesterday  morning  and 
pitched  tents  here  between  Centerville  and  Fairfax. 
Rain  on  way,  but  pleasant  meditation  on  Psalm  XXXIV, 
7.  Great  comfort  and  sublimity  in  the  things  of 
Almighty  power  and  love  stretched  over  the  universe,  and 
under  whose  shadow  the  children  of  men  are  allowed  to 
trust.  After  wet  time  in  getting  up  tent,  I  had  just 
got  snugly  ensconced  between  my  blankets  when  horse- 
men rode  rapidly  up  to  staff  tents,  and  soon  I  heard 
from  guard :  'We  are  ordered  off.'  About  nine,  the 
regiment  started  with  rapid  march.  Whither,  none 
knew;  but  enough  for  the  soldier,  'A  fight  on  hand.' 
No  water,  no  provisions  taken,  in  excessive  haste.  Chap- 
lain stopped  at  door  and  filled  canteen  and  brought  a 
partly  eaten  pone  of  stale  corn  bread.  The  night  black 
and  stormy.  Rain  came  down  in  a  flood.  Couldn't  see 
'hand  before  the  face.'  Separated  from  regiment,  let 
horse  pilot  way,  though  started  and  jumped  and  whirled 
round  ever  and  anon,  at  what  I  knew  not,  and  she  prob- 
ably as  wise.  Road  to  Fairfax  C.  H.  the  left,  to  Fairfax 
Junction  right,  at  intersection;  but  which  the  regiment 
would  take  I  had  no  idea,  and  had  no  idea  that  would 
see  road  when  got  to  crossing.  Fortunately  halted  there 
by  picket,  who  directed  to  the  right.  Soon  ran  into  rear 
of  column  and  all  together  we  tumbled  along.  I  know 
no  more  expressive  word.  The  road  like  slime.  The 
rain  unabated,  the  darkness  above,  the  same  because  it 
could  not  be  blacker.  Men  tumble  down  and  walked 
upon ;  shoes  drawn  off  by  mud ;  several  pistols  and  one 
sword  lost.  Still  the  line  crowds  on  to  Fairfax  Junction, 
where  arrive  about  1  A.  M.  after  such  a  march  as  even 


28  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

the  severely  taxed  'Ninth'  has  never  had  and  will  prob- 
ably never  have  again.  No  one  has  ever  experienced  the 
like — seen  such  a  night,  had  such  a  march,  and,  on  the 
whole,  been  in  such  a  press  of  circumstances.  And  when 
we  arrived  the  announcement  is  issued  from  head- 
quarters: 'No  need  of  regiments.  .  .  .  Fight  over 
and  enemy  repulsed/  Next  order:  'Take  the  woods 
and  return  in  morning  to  camp.'  With  great  difficulty 
fires  are  kindled.  And  there  we  stood  all  night  in  rain — 
drenched  and  searching  and  looking  for  the  day.  Never 
did  the  light  look  so  beautiful,  but  the  most  beautiful  of 
sights  was  our  'camp'  again  after  the  remarch,  which  was 
made  in  quick  time,  and  the  half  dry  and  hungry  9th 
made  first  for  their  mess  chests,  at  which  they  got  about 
10  A.  M.  .  .  .  My  thoughts,  in  that  horrible  dark- 
ness and  storm,  were  above  this  world,  I  hope.  The 
glorious  wings  seemed  stretched  over  me.  No  thought 
of  evil  to  myself  entered  my  mind.  .  .  .  Applica- 
tion to  War  Department  for  release  from  Commission 
and  permit  to  preach  to  the  Confederate  Troops  in  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia.  .  .  .  Answer  next  day. 
Another  start  for  old  Charleston,  where  arrived  the  15th. 

Began  work  at  Trapman  Hospital. 
Sick  at  home  those  weeks.  .  .  .  Hearing  that  the 
Morris  Street  Baptist  Church  sold  for  a  silver  factory — 
think  of  it !  .  .  .  I  purchased  it  from  the  purchaser 
in  the  name  of  my  Master  .  .  .  and  opened  the 
'Soldiers'  Chapel.'  .  .  .  Had  the  happiness  of 
preaching  to  my  old  regiment,  the  9th  Georgia.  Sta- 
tioned at  James  Island.  The  meeting  with  those  war- 
worn men  was  delightful.  Their  religious  condition  is 
most  gratifying.  Fifty  have  been  converted.  Some 
waiting  now  for  baptism. 

''In  January,  1872,  the  news  came  to  me  like  a  flash  in 
a  cloudless  sky  that  I  had  been  elected  Corresponding 


HENRY  ALLKN  TUPPER  2*) 

Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention.  My  mind  seemed  fixed 
that  I  would  never  quit  my  church  for  any  other  or  for 
any  professorship  or  even  any  secretaryship.  Surely  I 
had  been  well  tested  in  the  near  twenty  years  of  my 
pastorate.  But  here  was  something  different ;  here  was 
perhaps  the  realizing  of  all  my  missionary  hopes  and 
preparations.  .  .  .  But,  per  contra,  the  breaking  up 
of  our  home,  the  quitting  of  the  church,  the  tearing  away 
from  the  delightful  associations.  .  .  The  thought 
was  appalling.  But  I  resolved  that  I  would  do  God's  will 
and  rejoice  in  the  sacrifice.  ...  I  preached  to  the 
united  churches  from  Phil.  4:1.  .  .  .  Then  the 
Lord's  Supper  was  celebrated,  then  the  heart-rending 
scene.  I  was  made  ill.  The  doctor  said  I  must  go  to 
bed,  but  instead  I  took  the  train  for  Richmond  as  the 
only  hope  of  redeeming  my  promised  acceptance. 

"I  went  to  Richmond  in  February  (1872).  The 
family  did  not  come  on  until  June.  Two  things  I  always 
thought  were  needed  by  a  family — a  house  of  their  own 
for  the  living  and  a  'long  home'  for  the  dead. 
I  secured  a  beautiful  lot  at  Hollywood,  and  not  long  after 
the  purchase  we  laid  to  rest  there  our  little  Kate. 
I  asked  God  to  give  me  the  house  on  Capitol  Street 
(1002)  which  I  frequently  passed.  It  seemed  so  sub- 
stantial, so  quiet,  so  respectable,  so  homelike.  It  was 
bought.  .  .  .  Before  the  family  arrived  it  was 
thoroughly  renovated  and  furnished.  .  .  .  Nannie 
and  the  children  were  delighted.  .  .  .  The  people 
were  abundantly  kind,  and  now  Richmond  seems  truly 
'our  home.'  .  .  .  The  'Old  First'  is  a  grand  church. 
I  love  my  work  there,  lecturing  weekly  on  the  Sabbath  - 
school  lesson.  ...  I  feel  much  interest  in  our  Edu- 
cational affairs  as  a  trustee  of  Hollins  Institute,  Rich- 
mond College,  and  the  Richmond  Female  Institute.  The 


30  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

University  of  Virginia  has  been  a  standard  and  a  stimu- 
lant which  should  immortalize  Jefferson  in  the  grateful 
memory  of  the  state  and  country.  .  .  .  On  the  four 
Boards  to  which  I  belong  there  are  not  a  few  fine  spirits. 
In  quitting  Charleston  and  Washington  I  could 
have  found  no  more  delightful  and  profitable  home  for 
my  family  than  the  beautiful  city  of  seven  hills  on  the 
bank  of  the  romantic  and  historic  James.  .  .  .  All, 
beyond  necessary  and  comfortable  living,  I  have  given 
away.  ...  I  believe  the  money  accounts  of  the 
Mission  Rooms  are  kept  with  absolute  precision.  My 
rule  and  direction  is  that,  should  death  overtake  me  any 
day,  there  would  be  nothing  in  my  affairs  as  Correspond- 
ing Secretary  which  would  require  the  least  explanation. 
.  .  .  First  meeting  of  the  Board.  In  reply  to  the 
president's  address  I  merely  said :  'I  have  come  because 
you  called  me,  and  I  shall  do  all  I  can  for  the  cause  of 
missions.'  At  the  public  'designation,'  at  the  Second 
Church,  I  presented  my  views  more  fully.  .  .  .  Dr. 
Jeter  had  said :  'We  have  called  you  to  think  for  us.' 
.  .  .  Office  in  back  rooms  of  the  First  Baptist  Church. 
Later  No.  1112  Main  Street.  .  .  .  Scarcely  had  I 
entered  upon  my  work  before  some  $6,000  had  to  be 
raised  to  get  off  to  China  a  missionary  company  of  eleven 
or  twelve  persons.  .  .  .  Appeals  were  made  and 
money  came,  which  made  me  bless  God.  .  .  .  On 
the  heels  of  this  another  extra  work  had  to  be  done.  The 
Rome  Church  must  have  a  chapel.  At  the  Convention 
at  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  the  $20,000  asked  for  was  readily 
secured.  ...  In  my  position  many  things  must 
come  and  die  in  my  breast.  I  feel  called  of  God  to  con- 
duct some  things  between  a  second  part  and  Him  alone. 
Women's  Missionary  Societies  have  been  organized  over 
the  country.  The  Mite  Box  impressed  me  when  I  was  a 
little  child  in  the  Sabbath  school.  Dr.  Burrows 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  31 

said  to  me  when  I  took  charge  of  this  work :  'How  can 
every  member  of  every  Baptist  Church  of  the  South  be 
induced  to  give  something  regularly  to  the  cause  of 
Foreign  Missions?'  This  I  have  kept  constantly  in  mind. 
.  The  editing  of  the  Journal  saves  expense  and 
gives  me  a  better  opportunity  of  communicating  directly 
with  the  churches.  .  .  .  My  sketches  of  missionaries 
and  their  work  I  hoped  would  quicken  the  interest  of 
the  churches,  as  they  did,  I  believe.  .  .  .  My  tours 
among  the  churches  are  delightful  in  some  respects  but 
great  crosses  in  others.  The  long  absence  from  my 
family  and  the  Mission  Rooms  is  a  serious  trial. 
I  try  to  make  the  missionaries  feel  that  I  am  one  of  them. 
They  certainly  seem  like  my  family — my  family  in  the 
Lord.  Their  sorrows  are  my  sorrows.  Their  joys  are 
my  joys.  .  .  .  When  I  retire  from  my  desk  I  do  not 
retire  from  my  thoughts  and  longings  in  reference  to  this 
great  enterprise. 

"Last  night  two  nights'  sleep  seem  to  have  packed 
themselves  into  one — so  sound  and  sweet  it  was.  It  was 
not  dead  sleep,  but  deep  slumber  full  of  pleasant  visions. 

.  .  I  told  the  girls  that  a  complete  drama  passed 
through  my  mind  during  the  night  which  was  so  vivid 
that  I  could  repeat  it.  They  said  playfully:  That  was 
naughty,  papa,  for  Sunday  night.'  I  retorted :  'Perhaps 
the  scene  opened  at  five  minutes  after  twelve.'  .  .  . 
To  amuse  the  children  I  have  written  out  my  dramatic 
dream  in  five  scenes  of  some  650  lines.  .  .  .  Several 
attacks  of  hay  fever.  Severer  the  fever,  more  active  the 
brain.  Ordinarily  I  could  not  have  written  the  drama  in 
one  day.  .  .  .  Laws  of  society:  (1)  Courtesy  to 
men;  (2)  Chivalry  to  women;  (3)  Tenderness  to  chil- 
dren; (4)  Truth 'to  all.  .  .  .  This  afternoon  and 
evening  were  seasons  of  rare  enjoyment.  About  3  o'clock 
we  went  on  Cecilian  Hill  [near  Mountain  Lake],  and 


32  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

while  we  were  enveloped  in  mist  the  valleys  below  were 
flooded  with  light.  This  view  was  soon  changed  into  a 
landscape  of  most  exquisite  beauty,  as  mountains  and  val- 
leys were  painted  with  the  most  varied  azure  hues. 
Bowing  the  head  to  the  ground  the  prospect  was  almost 
heavenly;  we  were  bound  to  it  as  if  by  enchantment,  and 
wished  the  whole  world  could  witness  it.  About  sunset  we 
ascended  Bald  Knob.  On  the  west  we  had  the  rare  view 
of  the  valley  filled  with  sun-white  mist,  which  seemed  a 
picture  of  the  Arctic  regions,  in  the  midst  of  which  and 
far  below  us  was  a  distinct  and  perfect  rainbow.  When 
we  reached  the  Knob  a  dark  cloud,  fringed  with  gold, 
covered  the  sun.  Gradually  the  splendid  light  poured 
through  until  suddenly  the  barrier  gave  way  and  the  God 
of  Day  in  superlative  grandeur  burst  upon  our  vision  and 
glorified  all  around  with  ineffable  magnificence.  There 
was  dead  silence.  Tears  flowed  down  our  cheeks. 
Instinctively  we  knelt  upon  this  sublime  altar,  and  our 
overflowing  hearts  were  poured  out  to  the  Lord  of  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.  .  .  .  Attended  Sabbath 
school  and  spoke  to  the  children.  ...  I  tried  to 
preach  the  sermon  to  the  children  to  my  own  soul. 

It  is  impossible  to  record  my  experience  of  the 
last  twenty- four  hours — coldness  in  prayer,  indifference 
in  reading  God's  word,  deceptions  of  the  devil. 
Yet  I  cling  to  Jesus.     Away   from  Him,  lost   forever. 

My  last  play  day  at  Mountain  Lake. 
I   thank  God   for   what   Mountain   Lake  has   done   for 
me. 

"Resumed  my  study  of  Italian.  .  .  .  Resolved 
that  by  God's  grace  I  shall  pursue  a  more  thorough  and 
more  systematic  study  of  the  Scriptures.  .  .  .  Janu- 
ary 6.  Motto  for  the  year:  'Looking  Unto  Jesus.' 
.  .  .  Left  home  on  4th  of  February  and  returned  the 
12th  of  April.  I  presume  I  traveled  some  4,000  miles 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  33 

and  preached  some  50  times.  .  .  .  Tuesday  I  go  to 
the  S.  B.  C.  I  know  not  the  future,  which  seems  some- 
times quite  shadowy.  I  go  'looking  unto  Jesus.'  .  .  . 
Over  $10,000  returned.  April  30.  Some  $4,000  during 
my  absence.  The  amount  I  labored  and  prayed  for  was 
$14,000.  Bless  God.  ...  I  told  Treasurer  to  tell 
Convention  that  I  had  put  down  my  salary  to  $2,000. 
.  .  .  Received  check  for  $10,000  from  a  friend  for 
missions  as  a  loan  with  only  my  name  as  security. 

My  book  is  finished — the  result  of  the  hay-fever 
seasons.  .  .  .  Sent  to  Publication  Society  'Truth  in 
Romance.'  Before  I  die  I  hope  to  give  a  very  different 
kind  of  book  to  the  world.  It  is  boiling  in  my  heart. 

I  have  begun  to  work  with  carpenters'  tools  with 
my  little  boy,  and  am  reading  the  New  Testament 
through  every  26  days,  10  chapters  a  day.  ...  I 
shall  not  begin  to  write  until  I  can  see  the  whole  book- 
through  at  a  glance.  The  remaining  days  of  the  month, 
viz. :  the  Sundays,  I  propose  to  read  the  Old  Testament— 
17  chapters  each  Sunday.  ...  In  looking  over  my 
books  I  find  that  from  1854  to  1883  I  received  of  the 

Lord  on  account  of  income  $279,500.98  and 

donated  in  the  time 124,541.39  and 


used  for  other  purposes $154,959.59 

After  two  months  of  delight  [at  Marquette, 
Lake  Superior]  we  turn  our  faces  homeward.  .  .  . 
Have  done  little  study.  Have  read  several  works: 
Agassiz's  two  series  of  Geological  Sketches,  St.  Giles' 
Lecture  on  The  Faiths  of  the  World,  Mathews  on  Use 
and  Abuse  of  Words,  Alcott's  Emerson,  Thomas  a 
Kempis'  Imitation,  etc.,  and  prepared  address  for  200th 
anniversary  of  the  First  Church,  Charleston,  S.  C. 


34  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

"The  Board  has  appointed  me  their  Commissioner  to 
go  to  Mexico  to  investigate  the  propositions  in  regard  to 
the  $150,000  for  school  purposes.  .  .  .  After  our 
long  and  severe  struggle  we  close  our  books  to-day  out 
of  debt  and  $144.61  on  hand  Laus  Deo.  .  .  .  Have 
preached  four  times  to  the  hotel  company.  Hope  that 
good  has  been  done.  I  thank  God  for  the  tears  I  saw  last 
Sunday.  ...  I  begin  to-morrow  my  Spanish 
studies  with  more  energy.  .  .  .  Have  written  ap- 
peals for  14  papers.  .  .  .  Heavy  obligations  press 
the  Board.  .  .  .  It  is  well  not  to  have  committed  to 
paper  the  bitter  experiences  of  the  past  six  months. 
...  On  Monday  the  5th,  T.  P.  Bell,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, was  appointed  my  assistant.  His  coming  promises 
broader  work  for  the  Board.  ...  In  seventy  days 
have  visited  thirty-five  cities  and  done  what  I  could  by 
day  and  by  night  in  the  states  belonging  to  the  S.  B.  Con- 
vention. .  .  .  To-day  I  finished  The  Carpenter's 
Son,'  the  fourth  book  I  have  prepared  for  the  press  in  my 
vacations.  .  .  .  After  writing  'Finis'  to  the  book,  I 
ascended  Mt.  Agassiz,  the  second  time  this  season,  by 
way  of  recreation.  The  view  there  as  a  thing  of  beauty 
is  a  joy  forever.  .  .  .  Came  here  [New  York]  by 
request,  as  member  of  a  committee  representing  some  70 
Foreign  Missionary  Boards  and  Societies  in  England  and 
America,  to  prepare  programme  for  a  World's  Mission- 
ary Meeting  to  be  held  next  June  in  London.  .  .  . 
L —  -  has  given  me  a  copy  of  Thomas  a  Kempis. 
Oh,  that  I  had  continued  to  read  this  sacred  wis- 
dom since  the  days  I  first  became  acquainted  with  the 
work — in  the  childhood  of  my  religious  life. 
February  29,  1888.  Fifteenth  birthday  and  beautiful 
presents.  Shall  I  see  sweet  sixteen?  ...  I  have 
started  a  'Decade  of  Missions  from  1880  to  1890'  as  a 
supplement  to  my  'History  of  Foreign  Missions.' 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  35 

How  changed  all  of  life!  October  12th,  at  2  A.  M.,  the 
noblest  woman  of  earth  went  into  sleep.  ...  A 
world  with  the  world's  best  treasure  gone.  My  earthly 
light — alas,  alas !  .  My  earthly  joy  is  to  honor 

the  memory  of  this  noblest  of  women,  truest  of  wives, 
most  devoted  of  mothers,  and  most  consecrated  of  Chris- 
tians. .  .  .  Alas,  alas !  my  dear  friend  and  brother, 
James  Boyce,  is  gone.  A  prince  has  fallen  in  Israel. 
.  .  .  The  present  state  of  our  finances  would  be 
alarming  but  for  two  things — the  Commission  and  the 
Divine  Promises.  .  .  .  Attended  the  Maryland 
Union.  .  .  .  The  address  at  Baltimore  was  almost 
extemporaneous  after  roaming  for  an  hour  over  streets 
in  agony  of  prayer.  I  committed  myself  entirely  to  the 
will  of  the  Spirit,  and  could  no  more  report  what  I  said 
than  I  could  fly.  ...  Unveiling  of  Lee's  statue.  A 
day  never  to  be  forgotten.  One  hundred  thousand  do 
honor  to  the  great  chieftain.  .  .  .  Met  a  bevy  of 
children  and  tried  to  teach  them  what  the  wisest  might 
say  every  night  : 

"Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,     .     .     . 


"September  26,  1893.  .  .  .  With  the  close  of  the 
last  fiscal  year  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board,  the  un- 
precedented sum  of  $150,000  having  been  raised  in  com- 
memoration of  the  Centenary  of  the  Revival  of  Foreign 
Missions,  I  felt  it  my  duty  to  retire  from  the  Secretary- 
ship of  the  Board.  The  action  of  the  Board  was  most 
liberal  and  fraternal  and  the  separation  most  loving. 
.  I  recalled  that  I  had  given  away  about  one-half 
of  the  monetary  income  of  my  life.  .  .  .  Elected 
President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Woman's  Col- 
lege. ...  I  am  giving  myself  to  the  work  of 
languages:  Latin.  Greek,  Hebrew.  French,  Spanish. 


36  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

German,  Italian.  In  order  to  revise  my  Hebrew  I  am 
preparing  a  primer  in  that  language.  .  .  .  About.  8 
or  10  hours  a  day  I  devote  to  these  languages.  .  .  . 
The  prime  object  I  have  in  view  is  a  more  perfect  knowl- 
edge of  the  Scriptures.  .  .  .  The  trustees  want  me 
to  work  for  the  college  as  I  have  done  in  years  gone  by. 
.  .  .  To-day  have  closed  my  appeals  before  the 
churches  in  behalf  of  the  Woman's  College  .  .  . 
having  spoken  on  a  single  Sunday  to  as  many  as  five 
churches  between  9  A.  M.  and  9  p.  M.  .  .  .  Notes  to 
133  persons.  ...  I  agree  to  go  to  Baltimore  Octo- 
ber 1st.  In  addition  to  my  teaching  I  shall  have  oppor- 
tunity of  preaching.  .  .  .  Received  telegram:  'You 
are  invited  to  accept  Bible  Chair  in  Richmond  College.' 
.  .  .  If  the  Lord  will  make  his  servant  meet  for  this 
service,  one  of  the  greatest  hopes  of  his  life  will  be  real- 
ized. ...  It  seems  but  yesterday  I  began  my  Bible 
work  in  Richmond  College,  and  now  it  is  done  for  the 
session.  There  remains,  however,  the  examinations.  I 
shall  put  up  six  blocks  with  sixty  questions.  .  .  . 
Since  February  8th  I  have  lectured,,  I  believe,  150  times. 

This  has  been  one  of  the  most  delightful  duties 
of  my  life.  .  .  Richmond,  September  25,  1899. 
Began  work  to-day  .  .  .  with  satisfaction  of  hav- 
ing 1,473  pages  of  lectures  prepared  during  the  vacation 
at  Casco  Bay  for  my  college  classes  this  session. 
September  17,  1900,  The  Knob,  Casco  Bay.  Alas,  how 
time  flies!  We  have  had  varied  and  delightful  experi- 
ences. The  season  has  been  seasoned  by  a  great  storm. 

The  only  stay  to  mind  and  heart  is  clinging  to 
a  personal  God.  .  .  .  The  loftiest  wisdom  is  John's 
concluding  words  of  Revelation:  'Come,  Lord  Jesus.' 
Afton,  Va.,  July  11,  1901.  .  .  .  Another  session  in 
my  Bible  work  at  Richmond  College.  .  .  .  The 
duty  has  been  delightful  to  the  teacher.  .  .  .  This 


HENRY  ALLEN  TUPPER  37 

Afton  is  one  of  the  most  picturesque  spots  on  our  Conti- 
nent; has  the  purest  air  and  dryest  climate  I  know. 
.  .  .  September  21,  1901.  At  home  again.  Happy 
as  the  'outing'  of  99  days  was,  it  is  good  to  be  at  home 
once  more,  grateful  to  God  for  all  of  his  favors  in  the 
past  and  trusting  him  to  the  end  for  grace." 

This  is  the  last  entry  in  the  diary  and  record  of  his 
life.  On  March  27,  1902,  the  spirit  of  Henry  Allen 
Tupper  passed  from  earth  to  be  with  God. 


CHARLES  FENTON  JAMES 
1844-1902 

In  October,  1859,  John  Brown  made  his  famous  attack 
of  Harper's  Ferry.  Hon.  J.  Taylor  Ellyson  writes  that 
in  the  "John  Brown  Raid"  there  was  a  young  man  serv- 
ing in  a  volunteer  cavalry  company  whose  name  was 
Charles  Fenton  James.  He  was  fifteen  years  old,  having 
been  born  in  August,  1844.  His  parents  were  Robert 
and  Winifred  James,  and  Loudoun  County,  Virginia,  was 
his  birthplace.  In  1861  he  helped  to  organize  one  of  the 
companies  that  formed  the  8th  Virginia  Regiment.  This 
regiment  was  commanded  by  Colonel  Eppa  Hunton,  and 
young  James,  starting  as  one  of  the  noncommissioned 
officers  of  his  company,  before  the  War  was  over,  after 
successive  promotions,  had  become  the  captain  of  his 
command.  In  'the  winter  of  1864,  while  in  the  trenches 
near  Petersburg,  he  made  profession  of  his  faith  in 
Christ,  and  was  baptized  by  Rev.  R.  W.  Cridlin.  Before 
the  War  he  was  a  student  at  an  academy  near  Alexan- 
dria, and  in  September,  1865,  he  entered  Columbian  Col- 
lege, Washington.  The  next  year  he  entered  Richmond 
College,  being  the  first  student  on  the  ground  after  the 
War.  He  is  said  to  have  been  the  originator  of  the 
"mess-hall"  system  that  has  been  a  blessing  so  many 
years  to  so  many.  In  1870  he  took  his  Bachelor  of  Arts 
degree.  He  next  studied  at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theo- 
logical Seminary  at  Greenville,  S.  C.  Rev.  C.  A.  Wood- 
son,  who  was  a  student  at  Greenville  with  James,  says  of 
him:  "I  was  struck,  at  our  first  meeting,  with  his  fine 
face,  manly  form,  and  his  quiet  dignity.  He  was  dis- 
tinguished for  his  painstaking  investigation  of  anything 

38 


CHARLES  FENTON  JAMES  39 

that  claimed  his  attention;    had  a  wonderful  power  of 
analysis  and  a  rare  faculty  of  weighing  testimony." 

His  first  pastorate,  which  began  in  1873,  was  at 
Buchanan,  Va.  While  he  was  their  pastor  the  Buchanan 
Church  built  the  substantial  brick  meeting-house  in  which 
they  are  still  worshiping.  Besides  his  work  in  the  town 
of  Buchanan,  he  had,  during  these  ten  years,  as  part  of 
his  field,  these  churches:  Jennings  Creek,  Natural 
Bridge,  North  Prospect  (Bedford  County).  In  1883  he 
left  Buchanan  to  become  pastor  of  the  church  at  Cul- 
peper.  The  Baptist  Church  in  Culpeper  is  on  the 
spot  where  the  old  jail  stood  in  which  James  Ireland  was 
imprisoned.  So  it  was  not  strange  that  Mr.  James,  with 
his  capacity  for  patient  investigation,  and  with  the  spirit 
of  a  general,  should  have  been  led  into  a  discussion  as  to 
the  part  of  Virginia  Baptists  in  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty.  The  articles  which  he  wrote  in  this  debate  led 
to  his  writing  his  "Documentary  History  of  the  Struggle 
for  Religious  Liberty  in  Virginia."  It  is  probable  that 
this  discussion  in  the  Herald  and  this  book  will  perpetu- 
ate his  name  longer  than  anything  else  he  did. 

This  discussion  came  about  on  this  wise.  In  March, 
1886,  he  preached  to  his  church  three  sermons  on  "The 
Mission  of  the  Baptists."  In  one  of  these  sermons  he 
said  that  "at  the  date  of  the  Revolution  the  Baptists  were 
the  only  denomination  of  Christians  which,  as  such,  held 
to  the  idea  of  religious  liberty,  and  that,  of  the  political 
leaders  of  that  day,  James  Madison  and  Thomas  Jeffer- 
son were  chiefly  instrumental  in  establishing  that  princi- 
ple in  the  laws  of  our  land."  On  May  29,  1886,  he 
repeated  this  sermon  at  Flint  Hill  at  a  Ministers'  and 
Deacons'  Meeting.  In  the  Herald,  of  June  24,  1886,  there 
appeared  a  report  of  an  address  delivered  by  the  Hon. 
Wm.  Wirt  Henry  before  the  American  Historical  Asso- 
ciation. In  this  address  Mr.  Henry  told  of  Virginia's 


40  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

leadership  in  bringing  in  religious  liberty,  but  made  no 
allusion  to  the  Baptists,  and  said  it  was  "under  the 
leadership  of  Patrick  Henry  that  religious  liberty  has 
been  established  as  a  part  of  the  fundamental  law  of  our 
land."  As  no  one  else  took  issue  with  this  address,  and 
as  its  statements  were  just  the  opposite  of  those  made  in 
his  sermons,  Mr.  James  decided  to  challenge  Mr.  Henry's 
assertions.  A  lengthy  discussion  in  the  columns  of  the 
Herald,  between  Mr.  James  and  Mr.  Henry,  followed. 
In  the  course  of  this  discussion  Mr.  James  searched  for 
and  examined  for  himself  "all  available  sources  of 
information  concerning  the  struggle  for  religious  liberty 
in  Virginia."  He  went  "back  of  Howell's  'Early  Bap- 
tists of  Virginia'  to  the  sources  from  which  he  and  others 
had  drawn  their  information — to  the  Journal  of  the  Vir- 
ginia House  of  Burgesses,  or  General  Assembly,  and  to 
the  writings  of  those  who  participated  in  the  struggle." 
The  discussion  in  the  Herald  might  have  continued 
longer  than  it  did,  but  the  editors  decided  that  it  must 
close.  The  investigations  begun  by  Dr.  James  (he  re- 
ceived the  degree  of  D.  D.  while  he  was  in  Culpeper)  in 
this  controversy  were  continued  by  him  during  his  whole 
residence  in  Culpeper,  his  proximity  to  the  Congressional 
Library  and  the  State  Library  in  Richmond  making  these 
researches  the  more  easy.  He  copied  all  that  he  could 
find  bearing  on  the  question  in  hand,  setting  down  the 
book  and  the  page.  After  more  than  ten  years  the 
documentary  evidence  as  to  this  struggle  for  religious 
liberty  and  the  share  of  the  Baptists  in  it  was  presented 
to  the  world  by  Dr.  James  in  the  book  already  mentioned. 
In  Dr.  James'  opinion  this  book  was  "not  a  history  in  the 
usual  sense  of  the  word,  but  rather  a  compilation — a 
grouping  together  of  evidence  and  authorities,  so  that 
the  reader  may  see  and  judge  for  himself."  The  book  is 
intended  to  furnish  "the  careful  and  painstaking  student 


CHARLES  FENTON  JAMES  41 

of  history  a  reliable  text-book  for  the  study  of  one  of 
the  most  important  of  the  great  battles  that  have  been 
fought  for  human  rights  and  have  marked  the  progress 
of  the  human  race." 

From  Culpeper  Dr.  James  moved  to  Roanoke  to 
become  the  principal  of  Alleghany  Institute,  an  academy 
for  boys.  The  session  of  1888-89  was  his  first  in  Roan- 
oke, and  that  of  1891-92  marked  the  beginning  of  his 
work  as  the  president  of  Roanoke  Institute,  Danville. 
Here  he  remained  till  death  called  him  hence.  In  the 
face  of  great  difficulties  he  set  the  school  on  its  feet  as 
an  institution  of  high  grade.  With  his  college  work  he 
linked  his  service  for  country  churches  in  reach  of  Dan- 
ville. He  loved  the  country  churches  and  to  work  with 
and  for  them.  During  these  years  he  preached  to  Mill 
Creek,  Ringgold,  and  Mt.  Zion  Churches,  all  in  the  Roan- 
oke Association.  In  this  Association  he  exerted  a  most 
blessed  influence,  being  the  moderator  of  the  body  at  the 
time  of  his  death. 

He  was  a  man  of  unflinching  moral  and  physical 
courage.  "What  a  great  soldier  he  would  have  made! 
He  would  not  have  been  the  tactician,  but  the  strategist, 
who  plans  his  movements  on  a  large  scale.  He  belonged 
to  the  same  general  type  as  Lee,  Grant,  Von  Moltke.  He 
did  his  thinking  in  blocks.  His  life  moved  upon  straight 
lines  of  candor,  openness,  and  courage.  He  had  genuine 
and  thorough  culture.  His  friendship  was  stalwart  and 
loyal.  His  powers  of  debate,  his  able  contributions  to 
the  papers,  his  works  as  author  and  educator,  made  his  a 
commanding  figure  in  our  Baptist  ranks." 

He  was  married  on  October  28,  1873,  to  Miss  Mary 
Alice  Chamblin,  of  Loudoun  County,  Virginia.  She  sur- 
vived him,  living  until  September  8,  1912.  Their  chil- 
dren are:  Mayo  C.  James,  Mrs.  Julian  Jordan,  Charles 
Edward  James,  Mrs.  N.  A.  Lavender,  John  W.  James, 


42  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

and  Robert  L.  James.  His  death  was  sudden.  Prof.  Geo. 
Swann  was  called  in  to  see  him  Wednesday  afternoon, 
December  3 ;  he  complained  of  having  a  strange  sensa- 
tion. He  never  rallied,  dying  about  three  o'clock  on  the 
morning  of  the  5th  of  December,  1902.  The  funeral  was 
conducted  by  Dr.  T.  B.  Thames,  assisted  by  Dr.  W.  E. 
Hatcher  and  Rev.  Wm.  Hedley.  On  June  8,  1903,  a 
tablet  in  his  honor  was  unveiled  in  the  Roanoke  Institute 
chapel.  The  inscription  contained  these  words :  "Ardent 
patriot,  brave  soldier,  loyal  friend,  devout  Christian, 
diligent  student,  able  minister,  skilful  educator,  true  in 
all  the  relations  of  life." 


ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER  RICE 

1824-1902 

Archibald  Alexander  Rice  was  born  in  Petersburg, 
Va.,  July  7,  1824.  His  father  was  Rev.  Dr.  Benjamin 
Holt  Rice,  a  distinguished  Presbyterian  clergyman.  His 
mother  was  Martha  Alexander,  a  daughter  of  Wm. 
Alexander  and  a  sister  of  Dr.  Archibald  Alexander  (who 
was  president  of  Hampden-Sidney  College  and  professor 
at  Princeton),  and  an  aunt  of  James  Waddel  Alexander 
and  Joseph  Addison  Alexander  (both  professors  at 
Princeton).  His  father  being  for  many  years  the  pastor 
of  the  Presbyterian  Church  at  Princeton,  he  spent  his 
boyhood  and  student  days  in  the  classic  shades  of  this 
venerable  seat  of  learning,  graduating  first  in  the  college, 
on  August  14,  1842,  and  four  years  later  in  the  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  Here  also  he  was  licensed  to  the 
ministry,  but  after  some  eight  years  of  missionary  work 
in  Southampton  County,  Virginia,  becoming  convinced 
that  he  was  not  called  to  preach,  the  study  of  medicine 
was  taken  up  and  pursued  until  a  diploma  from  the  Jef- 
ferson Medical  College,  Philadelphia,  was  won.  He 
became  professor  in  the  Kentucky  School  of  Medicine, 
which  position  he  held  until  1861. 

While  Dr.  Rice  preached  more  or  less  up  to  the  very 
end  of  his  life,  he  was  never  a  pastor  of  any  church,  and 
his  life  work  was  that  of  the  physician.  During  the 
War,  as  a  surgeon  in  the  Confederate  Army,  he  held 
various  positions  of  trust  and  had  many  exciting  and  not 
a  few  amusing  experiences.  Once  he  made  a  very  nar- 
row escape  from  arrest  by  Federal  officers  in  a  hospital 
in  Kentucky ;  once  he  was  virtually  in  control  of  the 

43 


44  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

whole  city  of  Chattanooga  for  something  like  twenty- 
four  hours.  This  experience  in  Chattanooga  was  in  the 
spring  of  1862.  Johnson's  army  was  retreating  through 
Tennessee ;  affairs  in  Chattanooga  were  in  a  demoralized 
state;  Dr.  Rice,  acting  on  his  own  responsibility,  took 
charge;  he  went  to  work  in  an  improvised  hospital, 
issued  orders  for  food  to  be  cooked  by  private  citizens, 
took  wood  and  other  necessary  things,  and  gave  orders 
on  the  government  for  the  pay.  After  the  War,  he  was 
connected  with  a  medical  school  in  Kentucky,  and  then 
settled  in  the  Bruington  neighborhood,  King  and  Queen 
County,  where  he  practiced  his  profession  for  a  long 
series  of  years.  About  1880  he  moved  to  Appomattox 
County  and  settled  near  the  Hebron  Baptist  Church. 
Here  he  came  to  be  the  "beloved  physician,"  because  the 
people  counted  him  a  past  master  in  his  profession, 
because  they  believed  in  the  man,  and  because,  notwith- 
standing his  age,  calls  from  far  and  near,  whatever  the 
weather  might  be,  were  answered.  One  horse,  an  excel- 
lent animal,  served  him  these  last  twelve  years  and  was 
led,  with  the  empty  buggy,  just  behind  the  corpse  in  the 
funeral  procession. 

"And  after  him  lead  his  masterless  steed." 

A  young  physician,  now  in  the  United  States  Navy, 
having  met  Dr.  Rice  and  talked  with  him  about  profes- 
sional matters,  remarked  to  a  friend:  "I  would  let  that 
man  do  anything  to  me."  During  the  early  months  of 
1897,  the  Hebron  pastor  being  in  Europe,  Dr.  Rice  filled 
the  pulpit,  greatly  delighting  the  people  by  his  sermons, 
some  of  which  were  talked  about  in  the  neighborhood  for 
months.  He  was  kind  to  brother  preachers,  and  they 
and  others  were  warmly  welcomed  and  entertained  in  his 
home,  which  was  one  of  the  most  hospitable. 


ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER  RICE  45 

Dr.  Rice  was  a  Presbyterian  until  after  he  went  to  live 
in  King  and  Queen  County.  Once  when  Rev.  Dr.  A.  E. 
Dickinson  urged  him  to  take  the  Herald  and  said :  "Some 
day  you  will  be  a  Baptist/'  Dr.  Rice  replied :  "No,  sir, 
every  bone  in  me  would  cry  out  against  me."  When, 
however,  his  daughter  Nellie  was  born,  there  being  no 
Presbyterian  Church  near  at  hand  where  he  could  have 
her  sprinkled,  he  was  led  to  examine  the  Scriptures  on 
the  question  of  baptism,  with  the  result  that  he  became 
a  Baptist.  He  was  baptized  in  1872  by  Rev.  Dr.  Chas. 
H.  Ryland,  becoming  a  member  of  the  Bruington  Church, 
and  on  November  18,  1877,  was  ordained  at  this  church. 

Dr.  Rice  was  married  twice,  his  first  wife  being  Miss 
Eleanor  W.  Nash,  and  his  second,  who,  with  one 
daughter,  Lizzie,  survived  him,  Miss  Mary  C.  Haynes. 
He  died  December  19,  1902,  and  was  buried  in  the 
Hebron  Church  graveyard. 


NOAH  CALTON  BALDWIN 

1817-1903 

For  nearly  six  decades  this  man  of  God  preached  the 
gospel,  as  pastor  and  evangelist,  throughout  the  counties 
of  Washington  and  Smyth,  reaching  at  times  into 
Wythe.  Originally  this  was  the  territory  of  the  old 
Washington  Association  that  was  anti-missionary  heart 
and  soul.  Finally,  in  1845,  some  of  the  churches  of  this 
body  withdrew,  as  they  no  longer  held  these  narrow 
missionary  views,  and  organized  the  Lebanon  Associa- 
tion; in  this  movement  Mr.  Baldwin  was  the  leader. 
When  this  separation  took  place  the  anti-missionary  sec- 
tion numbered  1,100  and  the  seceders  500;  to-day  the 
old  Washington  Association  has  fewer  churches  with  a 
much  smaller  membership  than  at  the  time  of  the  division, 
while  the  Lebanon  Association  has  43  churches  with 
about  4,000  members,  and  after  its  organization  it  dis- 
missed about  half  its  churches  to  form  the  New  Lebanon 
Association.  His  leadership  cost  him  no  little  persecu- 
tion. Concerning  this  period  of  his  life  he  says  in  his 
diary :  "I  considered  it  my  duty  to  disseminate  all  the 
information  I  could  on  the  subject  of  missions,  and  to 
urge  the  churches,  and  the  association  to  which  they 
belonged,  to  united  action  in  regard  to  those  benevolent 
enterprises  which  have  distinguished  the  Baptists 
throughout  the  world.  For  doing  this  I  was  much  perse- 
cuted, called  a  money  hunter  and  divider  of  churches. 
Finally  I  was  dismissed,  rather  withdrew,  from  the 
pastorate  of  St.  Glair's  Bottoms  Church  on  account  of 
its  hostility  to  the  missionary  cause." 

He  was  born  September  30,  1817,  in  Piney  Creek 
Valley,  then  in  Ashe  County  (but  now  in  Alleghany 
County),  North  Carolina.  His  father  was  Enoch 
Baldwin,  the  son  of  Rev.  Elisha  Baldwin,  and  his  mother 

46 


NOAH  CALTON  BALDWIN  47 

Esther  Baker,  whose  uncle,  Rev.  Andrew  Baker,  was  a 
preacher  of  considerable  notoriety  in  North  Carolina. 
Although  Enoch  Baldwin  and  his  wife  were  not  able  to 
give  their  children  large  educational  advantages,  three 
months  a  year  being  about  all  the  schooling  they  received, 
the  religious  impressions  they  made  upon  their  children 
were  good,  and  two  of  the  sons  became  ministers.  After 
having  "turned  a  deaf  ear  to  the  requisitions  of  the 
gospel,"  in  May,  1838,  young  Baldwin's  "sleepy  soul 
was  awakened  in  a  most  powerful  manner  to  a  sense  of 
its  danger."  It  was  not,  however,  until  he  had  decided 
to  preach  that  he  really  rejoiced  in  Jesus.  On  his  twenty- 
first  birthday,  at  Mt.  Zion,  Ashe  County,  he  preached 
his  first  sermon.  Not  long  after  his  ministry  began  he 
left  the  Methodist  Church  and  became  a  Baptist,  since 
he  could  not  bring  himself  to  sprinkle  or  pour  water  and 
.call  it  baptism,  nor  could  he  administer  the  ordinance 
to  infants.  On  December  25,  1838,  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Nancy  McMillen,  daughter  of  John  and  Narcessey 
McMillen,  of  Ashe  County,  North  Carolina.  On  the 
first  Saturday  in  October,  1840,  he  was  ordained,  the 
presbytery  being  composed  of  Elders  D.  Senter  and 
N.  M.  Senter.  The  same  fall  he  moved  to  Smyth 
County.  Virginia.  In  this  section  he  spent  the  rest  of  his 
life. 

After  his  trouble  with  the  anti-missionary  brethren,  he 
became  a  missionary  of  the  State  Mission  Board  of  Vir- 
ginia, working  in  the  general  section  covered  to-day  by 
the  Lebanon  and  New  Lebanon  Associations.  In  1852 
his  report  to  the  General  Association  of  his  work  in 
Washington,  Smyth,  and  Wythe  Counties  showed  that 
he  had  baptized  51  during  the  year,  and  that  the  churches 
he  had  served  had  become  sufficiently  strong  to  need  no 
longer  the  help  of  the  Board.  In  the  course  of  his  long 
ministry  he  was  pastor  of  the  following  churches  :  Middle 
Fork,  Friendship,  Marion,  Sugar  Grove,  South  Fork, 
Greenfield,  Glade  Spring.  Mountain  View,  Maiden's 


48  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Spring,  Abingdon,  St.  Glair's  Bottoms,  his  service  for  the 
first-named  church  extending  over  almost  thirty-three 
years.  Four  of  these  churches,  namely,  Marion,  Glade 
Spring,  Friendship,  and  Greenfield,  were  largely  the 
result  of  his  work,  and  were  organized  by  him.  In  many 
ways  he  was  a  leader ;  for  example,  with  Rev.  J.  T.  Kin- 
cannon,  in  1867,  he  consummated  plans  for  the  publica- 
tion of  a  paper  known  as  The  Landmark  Banner.  In 
evangelistic  work  he  was  successful,  going  far  and  wide, 
and  leading  many  to  Christ.  As  a  debater  he  was  logical 
and  fair,  being  willing  to  examine  fully  and  frankly  the 
position  of  his  opponent.  His  mind  was  vigorous.  In 
the  presentation  of  his  views  he  was  clear  and  convinc- 
ing. His  address  was  frank  and  impressive.  His 
presence  was  commanding,  his  physique  being  very  fine. 
He  was  seldom  sick.  His  devotion  to  his  calling  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel  knew  no  bounds.  As  a  pastor  of 
churches  he  rarely  ever  missed  an  appointment.  Frank- 
ness and  candor  marked  his  intercourse  with  the  people 
he  served.  He  was  of  the  stuff  of  which  martyrs  are 
made;  he  would  have  gone  down  under  persecution 
rather  than  yield  one  inch  in  his  contention  for  the  "faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints."  One  gets  quite  a  picture 
of  the  man  and  of  the  days  of  his  great  activity  upon 
hearing  that  in  1846  he  rode  on  horseback  from  Marion 
to  Richmond,  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles,  to  attend 
the  General  Association  and  the  second  meeting  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention.  He  was  married  four 
times,  but  no  one  of  these  unions  was  blessed  with  chil- 
dren. He  died,  on  January  14,  1903,  from  a  tumor  on 
his  lip,  and  his  body  was  buried,  by  his  request,  beside 
his  second  wife,  in  the  Anderson  Cemetery,  Adwolfe, 
Smyth  County,  Virginia.  Some  time  after  his  burial, 
on  August  16,  his  funeral  sermon  was  preached,  accord- 
ing to  his  wish,  by  Rev.  J.  T.  Kincannon,  at  Friendship 
Church,  Washington  County,  from  the  text,  II  Tim. 
4:7-8. 


JOSEPH  FRANKLIN  DEANS 

1839-1903 

The  counties  of  Norfolk,  Nansemond,  Isle  of  Wight, 
and  Southampton,  all  in  Tidewater  Virginia,  formed  the 
arena  where  Joseph  Franklin  Deans  passed  his  life  and 
did  his  work.  Near  Churchland,  in  the  first-named 
county,  he  was  born,  of  "respectable  and  well-to-do 
parents,"  March  20,  1839.  During  the  days  of  his 
youth  at  Churchland  he  attended  school,  Mr.  Josiah 
Ryland  being  his  teacher,  went  to  Sunday  school  and 
church,  was  converted,  and  baptized.  When  he  set  out 
for  college  he  was  making  his  first  journey  away  from 
home  and  out  into  the  world.  Columbian  College  gave 
him,  in  1859,  his  Bachelor  of  Arts  diploma,  and  seven 
years  later  the  Master  of  Arts  degree.  Richmond  Col- 
lege gave  him  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 
While  a  student  at  Columbian  he  was  licensed  to  preach, 
and  in  1862  he  became  a  chaplain  in  the  Confederate 
Army.  After  his  ordination,  in  1865,  the  War  being 
over,  he  was  pastor,  for  a  brief  season,  at  Weldon,  N.  C. 
In  1866  he  became  pastor  of  Northwest,  Norfolk  County, 
and  at  the  meeting  of  the  Portsmouth  Association  that 
year,  at  Beaver  Dam,  he  preached  the  introductory 
sermon.  Later  he  was  clerk  of  this  body,  and  for  five 
sessions  its  moderator.  In  1869  his  three  years'  pastor- 
ate of  the  Bainbridge  Street  Church,  Manchester,  began. 
On  October  3,  1872,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Bettie 
Lightfoot  Poindexter,  and  the  following  spring  he  went 
as  a  supply  to  the  Staunton  Church  while  the  pastor. 
Dr.  Geo.  Boardman  Taylor,  was  engaged  in  the  "Memo- 
rial Year"  work.  Dr.  Taylor  alluded  to  this  event  in  his 
Jubilee  sermon  at  Staunton,  in  1903,  saving:  "The  Rev. 

49 


50  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

J.  F.  Deans,  a  brother  combining  in  a  rare  degree  sweet- 
ness with  dignity  and  force  of  character,  bringing  his 
young  bride,  came  here  as  my  supply." 

After  Manchester  and  Staunton  he  returned  to  the 
section  which  was,  as  already  suggested,  the  field  of  his 
life  work.  During  the  thirty  years  that  followed  he  was 
pastor,  first  and  last,  of  the  following  churches :  Berkley 
Avenue,  Smithfield,  South  Quay,  Great  Fork,  Western 
Branch,  Black  Creek.  Whitehead's  Grove,  Tucker 
Swamp,  Windsor,  Ivor.  One  of  these  churches,  White- 
head's  Grove,  he  served  for  twenty-seven  years,  and  at 
the  end  of  the  twenty-fifth  year  the  church  did  honor  to 
their  pastor  by  a  day  of  fellowship  and  of  congratula- 
tions, ministers  of  other  denominations  and  from  a  dis- 
tance being  among  the  speakers. 

In  1878  Mr.  A.  H.  Ashburn  invited  Mr.  Deans  to 
open  an  academy  at  Windsor,  a  village  on  the  Norfolk 
and  Western  Railway  between  Petersburg  and  Norfolk. 
This  invitation,  which  was  accepted,  led  to  a  new  sphere 
of  influence  and  power.  The  academy,  for  young  men 
and  young  women,  was  established,  Mr.  Ashburn  fur- 
nishing the  necessary  financial  support.  When  Thomas 
Arnold  was  a  candidate  for  the  head-mastership  of 
Rugby,  one  testimonial  to  the  trustees  said  that  if  he 
were  elected  "he  would  change  the  face  of  education  all 
through  the  public  schools  of  England."  It  is,  perhaps, 
not  going  too  far  to  say  that  the  influence  for  good  of 
Windsor  Academy  and  its  head  was  felt  all  through  that 
section  of  the  State.  The  words  of  Rev.  J.  Theodore 
Bowden,  a  Windsor  Academy  "boy,"  show,  in  part,  the 
work  of  the  school  and  the  spirit  of  its  principal.  In  a 
tribute  to  Dr.  Deans,  in  the  Religious  Herald  of  March 
5,  1903,  Mr.  Bowden  wrote:  "I  want  to  speak  a  few 
words  about  Dr.  J.  F.  Deans  as  the  young  man's  friend. 
There  was  nothing  that  gave  him  greater 


JOSEPH  FRANKLIN  DEANS  51 

pleasure  than  to  help  poor,  struggling  boys.  He  sought 
more  ways  and  found  more  opportunities  to  bless 
humanity  in  this  way  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  There 
are  ministers,  physicians,  lawyers,  merchants,  and  almost 
every  class  of  business  men,  who  can  rise  up  and  call  him 
blessed.  1  well  remember  twelve  years  ago  when  he 
took  me  from  my  father's  home  on  the  farm  and  put  me 
in  his  academy.  I  had  no  money,  but  because  of  my 
willingness  to  do  what  I  could  in  looking  after  the  school 
buildings  and  going  on  errands  about  his  home  he  per- 
mitted me  to  stay  in  his  school  three  years.  During  all 
this  time  never  did  he  permit  me  to  want  for  one  needed 
thing.  When  the  time  came  for  me  to  enter  Richmond 
College  he  opened  the  way  and  took  a  father's  interest  in 
my  welfare.  More  than  once  did  I  have  him  to  come 
into  my  room,  while  on  his  visits  to  the  city,  and  take 
from  his  pocket  his  book  and  write  me  a  check  sufficient 
to  settle  all  of  my  indebtedness."  Windsor  Academy 
sent,  as  the  years  came  and  went,  a  large  number  of 
young  men,  and  well  prepared,  too,  to  Richmond  College. 
The  hour  for  his  departure  came  suddenly.  His  wife 
was  away  from  home,  at  the  bedside  of  her  sister,  who 
was  extremely  ill.  On  Tuesday  he  was  very  busy  and 
apparently  perfectly  well.  Before  retiring  he  complained 
of  some  pain,  but  was  relieved  by  a  physician.  At  two 
o'clock  the  next  morning,  February  4,  1903,  he  called  his 
son,  and  in  a  little  while  he  was  dead.  A  special  car 
attached  to  the  train  known  as  the  "cannon  ball"  carried 
the  body  and  a  great  company  of  friends  to  Bruce  Sta- 
tion, on  the  Atlantic  Coast  Line,  from  which  place 
Churchland  was  reached  by  private  conveyances.  Here 
the  funeral  and  burial  took  place,  the  following  ministers 
having  part  in  the  service :  W.  V.  Savage,  J.  K.  Goode, 
C.  W.  Duke,  J.  J.  Taylor,  A.  B.  Dunaway,  W.  F.  Fisher, 
L.  E.  Barton,  J.  M.  Pilcher,  A.  E.  Owen,  W.  P.  Hines, 


52  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

E.  E.  Dudley,  and  W.  A.  Snyder.     He  was  survived  by 
his  wife,  a  daughter,  Ethel,  and  a  son,  Parke. 

Rev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Pilcher,  who  was  for  twenty  years  a 
close  friend  of  Dr.  Deans,  says  of  him:  "As  pastor, 
teacher,  and  citizen  he  was  preeminent,  not  only  in 
church  and  school  and  community,  but  also  in  all  the 
region  around.  When  the  people  of  Isle  of  Wight 
County  offered  him  a  seat  in  the  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion he  was  gratified  by  their  high  estimate  of  him  and 
courteously  declined.  When  they  demanded  the  service 
of  him  he  was  embarrassed  and  came  to  my  home  to  con- 
sult me.  We  took  time  to  look  at  every  phase  of  the 
question,  and  he  left  me  with  a  firm  purpose  not  to  accept 
the  honor,  and  publicly  declared  his  decision. 
On  another  occasion  we  consulted  in  regard  to  his  giving 
up  the  academy  in  order  to  devote  more  time  to  his 
churches.  I  insisted  that  the  work  already  done  in  the 
education,  elevation,  refinement,  and  culture  of  the  young 
people  of  the  adjoining  counties,  to  say  nothing  of  the 
conversion  to  Christ  of  so  many  of  them  while  they  were 
in  his  school,  .  .  .  demanded  that  he  should  not 
throw7  away  this  great  part  of  his  ministerial  work." 


JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE  CURRY* 
1825-1903 

The  State  of  Alabama  has  placed  in  one  of  the  two 
niches  assigned  to  her  in  the  Statuary  Hall  of  the  Capitol 
at  Washington,  a  marble  statue  of  Jabez  Lamar  Monroe 
Curry.  Yet  not  in  Alabama,  but  in  Georgia,  did  he  first 
see  the  light.  As  the  name  suggests,  "Dark  Corner," 
that  part  of  Lincoln  County  where  he  was  born,  on  Sun- 
day, June  5,  1825,  was  rather  famous  for  its  lawlessness. 
His  parents,  who  were  Wm.  Curry  and  Susan  Winn,  of 
Scotch  and  Welsh  extraction  respectively,  gave  their 
second  child  a  name  which  oppressed  him  as  he  grew 
older  and  which  he  eventually  modified,  for  at  first  his 
second  name  was  Lafayette  and  not  Lamar.  His  mother 
died  when  he  was  quite  young,  but  his  stepmother  seems 
to  have  done  a  good  part  by  him.  The  importance  of 
education  was  fully  realized  by  the  father,  for  his  chil- 
dren were  started  to  school  at  a  very  tender  age,  and  later 
he  wanted  Lamar  to  go  to  Germany  to  complete  his 
preparation  for  life's  work.  At  the  age  of  four  Lamar 
entered  a  school  whose  teacher,  Mr.  Josh  Fleming,  was 
respected  by  his  pupils,  even  if  they  did  duck  him  once 
in  order  to  secure  a  desired  holiday;  in  this  function 
Lamar,  though  young  and  small,  bore  his  part.  His  next 
teacher,  named  Vaughan,  was  from  Maine,  it  being  quite 
common  in  those  days  for  pedagogues  to  come  to  the 
South  from  the  New  England  States.  In  1833  the  stars 
fell,  and  young  Curry  left  home  to  attend  school  at 

*Much  of  the  information  used  in  this  sketch  is  derived  from 
"J.  L.  M.  Curry:  A  Biography,"  by  Edwin  Anderson  Alderman 
and  Armistead  Churchill  Gordon.  The  Macmillan  Co.,  New  York, 
1911.  Price,  $2.00.  Grateful  acknowledgment  is  made  to  this  book 
to  which  the  reader  is  referred  for  a  fuller  and  charming  record  of 
Dr.  Curry's  interesting  and  inspiring  life. 

53 


54  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Lincolnton,  the  county-seat,  where  he  lived  with  his 
grandmother.  His  teacher  at  this  place  was  Rev.  Mr. 
McKerley,  a  Presbyterian  minister.  Here,  at  the  wed- 
ding of  a  Miss  Lamar,  the  iced  cakes  set  in  a  row  to  dry 
made  a  great  impression  on  the  boy  from  "Dark  Corner," 
and  at  this  wedding,  while  sitting  on  the  fence  with  some 
other  boys  and  peeling  a  turnip,  he  cut  his  hand  so 
severely  that  he  carried  the  scar  through  life.  The  next 
year  he  was  sent  over  to  Willington,  S.  C,  to  a  school 
conducted  for  many  years,  first  by  Rev.  Moses  Waddell 
and  then  by  his  sons.  Here  many  famous  men,  among 
the  number  Jno.  C.  Calhoun,  Augustus  Baldwin  Long- 
street  (author  of  "Georgia  Scenes"),  James  Bowie 
(inventor  of  the  deadly  knife  that  bears  his  name), 
George  McDuffie,  and  James  Lewis  Petigru,  received 
their  early  training.  At  sunrise  the  master  blew  a  horn, 
the  boys  in  the  neighboring  homes  answering  on  their 
horns.  After  prayers  the  scholars  dispersed  to  the 
woods  to  study,  seeking  shade  if  the  weather  was  warm, 
building  fires  of  faggots  if  it  was  cold.  Next,  young 
Curry  and  his  brother  were  kept  at  home  and  sent  to 
school  at  Double  Branches  not  far  away,  the  teacher, 
one  Daniel  W.  Finn,  being  an  Irishman  and  a  Catholic. 
At  Double  Branches  he  heard  his  first  "missionary" 
sermon,  the  preacher  being  Rev.  Dr.  C.  D.  Mallory,  a 
distinguished  Baptist  minister.  His  parents  were  not 
Christians;  he  never  went  to  a  Sunday  school  until 
he  was  married,  and  he  seems  to  have  had  no  deep 
early  religious  convictions.  His  father  was  a  prosperous 
farmer  and  merchant,  and,  after  the  manner  of  country 
boys,  Lamar,  with  negroes  of  his  own  age,  spent  many 
an  hour  at  night  hunting  coons  and  'possums.  In  1838 
his  father  moved  to  Kelly  Springs,  Talladega  County, 
Alabama.  This  journey  of  some  two  hundred  miles 
by  private  conveyance  was  a  great  event  in  the  life 


JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE  CUR  in  55 

of  the  growing  boy.  He  never  forgot  his  first  sight  of 
the  mountains  which  this  trip  gave  him,  or  the  howling 
of  the  wolves  around  the  camp  from  night  to  night.  In 
his  new  home  he  helped  his  father  in  the  post-office 
attached  to  the  store,  and  sometimes  went  with  the 
wagons  to  Wetumpka,  a  trip  that  took  many  days. 
Again  the  boy  was  at  school,  and  from  his  own  early  edu- 
cational experiences  two  convictions  that  went  with  him 
through  life  seem  to  have  arisen.  He  felt  that  in  his  own 
training  the  classics  had  been  emphasized  to  the  neglect 
of  English  branches.  Years  afterwards  he  inaugurated 
at  Richmond  College  one  of  the  first,  if  not  the  first, 
courses  of  English  offered  at  any  American  college.  In 
these  early  days  boys  and  girls  were  together  in  school, 
and  he  was  through  life  a  strong  advocate  of  coeduca- 
tion. 

In  1839  he  entered  Franklin  College  (now  the  Uni- 
versity of  Georgia)  at  Athens.  He  occupied  Room  No. 
23.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  member  of  the  Phi  Kappa 
Debating  Society,  where  his  training  in  public  speaking 
was  invaluable.  During  his  life  at  Athens  he  began  to 
visit  young  ladies.  His  first  experience  in  this  line,  he 
afterwards  declared,  was  a  more  severe  ordeal  than  going 
into  a  battle.  The  blessing  to  him  of  such  companionship 
was  so  great  that  when  in  later  years  he  was  a  teacher 
of  young  men  at  Richmond  College  he  urged  them  to 
visit  the  young  ladies,  and  would  even  excuse  a  student 
who  was  "not  prepared"  if  he  had  been  to  see  one  of  the 
fair  sex.  His  last  years  at  college  were  characterized 
by  very  hard  work.  He  feared  that  his  trouble  with 
mathematics  would  prevent  his  graduation,  but  deter- 
mined effort  won  the  day.  He  next  turned  his  steps 
toward  Harvard,  though  afterward  he  was  sorry  that 
he  had  not  followed  his  father's  wishes  and  gone  to 
Germanv.  In  his  law  studies  at  Harvard  he  sat  at  the 


56  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

feet  of  Judge  Story  (then  of  the  Supreme  Court)  and 
Simon  Greenleaf,  who  was  scarcely  less  famous.  What 
intellectual  stimulus  young  Curry  found  in  Cambridge 
and  Boston,  since  Longfellow  was  one  of  the  professors, 
Lowell  an  editor,  Webster  to  be  heard  at  Faneuil  Hall, 
Theodore  Parker  at  his  church,  and  Charlotte  Cushman 
and  other  great  actors  at  the  theater !  One  of  his  fellow- 
students  at  Harvard  was  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  who,  in 
1876,  became  President  of  the  United  States/  Mr.  Curry 
received  his  B.  L.  in  February,  1845.  Upon  his  return 
home,  he  began  to  read  law  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Samuel 
W.  Rice,  in  Talladega,  at  the  same  time  writing  editorials 
for  the  Watchtower,  visiting  the  ladies,  attending  a 
debating  society,  and  going  every  Saturday  night  to  his 
home  only  six  miles  away.  But  the  sound  of  war  gave 
pause  to  the  study  of  the  law,  and  Mr.  Curry,  with 
several  others,  set  out  for  the  scene  of  the  war  with 
Mexico,  on  their  own  account,  in  the  Duane,  a  vessel  so 
unsea worthy  that  shortly  after  they  disembarked  it  sank 
in  the  harbor.  In  1850  Mr.  Curry  undertook  the 
management  of  a  plantation,  but  soon  found  that  he  liked 
books  better  than  directing  farm  labor.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  so  began  an  important  period  of  his  life. 
Political  life,  however,  rather  than  the  practice  of  law, 
appealed  to  Mr.  Curry.  He  was  popular  as  a  speaker, 
his  youthful  appearance  and  slight  figure  adding  to  this 
popularity.  The  burning  question  of  the  day  was 
whether  slavery  should  be  allowed  in  the  territories  and 
its  area  extended.  Mr.  Curry  took  no  uncertain  stand. 
Perhaps  his  political  convictions  may  be  epitomized  by 
saying  that  he  was  a  disciple  of  John  C.  Calhoun.  So 
deep  were  his  convictions  on  the  great  doctrines  of  States' 
rights  and  local  self-government  that  to  the  end  of  life 
they  remained  practically  unchanged.  In  1847  he  was 
elected  to  the  Alabama  legislature.  Again  in  1853  and 


JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE  CURRY          57 

in  1855  this  honor  was  conferred  upon  him.  His  farm- 
ing, alluded  to  above,  seems  to  have  filled  in  one  of  the 
intervals  in  his  public  career.  In  the  legislature  he 
always  voted  for  measures  that  favored  education,  and 
he  introduced  a  bill  that  led  to  a  geological  survey  of 
the  state.  In  1855  he  opposed  with  success  the  Know- 
Nothing  Party,  carrying  his  county  by  255  votes.  In 
1857  he  was  a  Presidential  elector  on  the  Buchanan 
ticket,  and  in  1857  and  1859  was  elected  to  Congress.  It 
is  interesting  to  look  upon  this  young  man  as  he  appeared 
in  Congress  for  the  first  time.  "He  was  of  splendid 
physique,  with  a  cast  of  features  and  an  expression  of 
countenance  so  marked  by  manly  ingenuousness  and 
honor,  yet  indicative  of  conscious  strength  and  self- 
reliance,  that  even  his  political  enemies  were  conciliated 
and  disposed  to  hear  him  with  favor."  Nor  was  he 
unknown  as  an  orator  and  statesman.  He  had  ua  voice 
full,  clear,  and  of  wonderful  compass.  Quick  in  percep- 
tion and  accurate  in  discrimination ;  fluent,  choice,  and 
classic  in  his  language ;  in  manner,  deliberate  and  self- 
possessed,  yet  fervid  and  impassioned  in  his  feelings  and 
impulses,  trained  in  the  severe  methods  of  the  schools 
and  especially  equipped  for  the  great  duties  that  lay 
before  him ;  loving  the  whole  country,  but  his  State  and 
section  with  a  warmth  not  far  short  of  Eastern  idolatry, 
he  was  full  ready,  we  may  easily  believe,  to  spring  at  a 
bound  into  the  very  front  rank  as  a  champion  of  the 
S«>nth."  He  delivered  his  first  speech  February  23,  1858. 
The  New  York  Tribune  recognized  him  as  "a  powerful 
addition  to  the  proslavery  side  of  the  House."  He  made 
a  speech  in  which  he  opposed  the  granting  of  pensions, 
as  involving  a  dangerous  principle.  Years  afterward  he 
wrote  for  the  Religious  Herald  an  article  in  which  he 
showed  the  danger  of  creating  a  pauper  class  by  careless 
charity,  and  the  evil  of  giving  public  money  to  religious 


58  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

denominations,  but  contended  that  the  support  of  public 
schools  was  no  violation  of  this  law.  In  another  speech 
he  opposed  the  publication  of  the  Congressional  Globe  as 
a  wrong  use  of  public  money.  He  never  lost  an  oppor- 
tunity "to  impress  his  convictions  concerning  political  or 
moral  righteousness  and  truth  upon  the  minds  of  those 
with  whom  he  came  in  contact."  While  in  Congress  he 
was  faithful  in  his  life  as  a  Christian  and  a  Baptist.  At 
the  age  of  21  he  had  been  baptized  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  Lebanon  Baptist  Church,  Coosa  River  Association, 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Henderson.  In  Washington  he  was 
a  regular  attendant  of  the  E  Street  Baptist  Church ;  in 
Congress  "he  was  punctual  in  attendance  and  alert  and 
painstaking  in  his  attention  to  the  public  matters  which 
came  before  the  House."  His  correspondence  was 
heavy,  and  in  those  days  Congressmen  had  no  clerks. 
When,  in  1861,  the  Southern  States  seceded,  Mr. 
Curry  promptly  withdrew  from  Congress  and  cast  his  lot 
with  his  State  and  his  section  of  the  country.  On  Janu- 
ary 7,  1861,  when  the  Alabama  Convention  met  in  Mont- 
gomery, he  was  on  the  platform.  On  January  11  the 
Convention  adopted  the  ordinance  of  secession,  and  on 
January  21  he  sent  to  the  speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives  the  announcement  of  his  withdrawal. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  provisional  Confederate  Con- 
gress that  met  in  Montgomery,  and  of  the  first  permanent 
Congress  meeting  in  Richmond.  His  deep  conviction 
that  the  War  should  go  on  led  to  his  defeat  at  a  subse- 
quent election,  when  his  opponent,  in  still-hunt,  advo- 
cated peace.  His  loyalty  to  his  State  never  faltered,  and 
now,  although  military  life  did  not  appeal  to  him,  he 
entered  the  armv.  Here  he  displayed  courage  and  under- 
went hardship  for  his  country.  Once  he  left  his  wife, 
who  was  sick,  to  go  to  the  battlefield ;  he  never  saw  her 
again;  the  rumor  that  he  had  been  killed  is  said  to  have 


JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE  CURRY          59 

hastened  her  death.  In  various  capacities,  as  cavalry 
officer,  as  aide  to  several  leading  generals,  as  commis- 
sioner under  the  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  he  served  his 
country.  He  was  brought  into  especially  close  touch 
with  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  whom,  as  a  disciplinarian 
and  tactician,  he  believed  was  without  a  superior  in  the 
Confederate  Army. 

With  the  close  of  the  War  a  distinctly  new  period 
began  in  Curry's  life.  In  November,  1865,  he  was  elected 
President  of  Howard  College.  The  following  January 
he  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  and  in  June, 
1867,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Wortham  Thomas, 
of  Richmond,  Virginia,  a  daughter  of  James  Thomas,  Jr. 
After  a  struggle  for  several  years  to  set  Howard  Col- 
lege well  on  its  feet,  a  struggle  carried  on  in  the  face  of 
all  of  the  horrors  of  the  Reconstruction  Period  in  the 
far  South,  Mr.  Curry  decided,  for  the  sake  of  his  family, 
consisting  of  his  wife  and  Sue  and  Manly  (children  of 
his  first  wife),  to  leave  Alabama  and  move  to  Richmond, 
Va.  A  little  before  his  ordination  he  had  preached  what 
he  called  his  first  regular  sermon,  and  later  had  helped 
Dr.  J.  J.  D.  Ren f roe,  who  was  his  pastor  and  his  bosom 
friend,  in  a  protracted  meeting.  He  loved  to  preach  at 
times,  he  declared,  but  did  not  feel  impelled  to  become  a 
regular  pastor,  though  by  1877  he  had  been  invited  to 
pastorates  in  Selma,  Montgomery,  Mobile,  Atlanta, 
Augusta,  Wilmington,  Raleigh,  New  Orleans,  Memphis, 
St.  Louis,  San  Francisco,  Louisville,  Norfolk,  Richmond, 
Baltimore,  New  York,  Boston,  and  Brooklyn.  Upon  the 
reorganization  of  Richmond  College,  in  1866,  Mr.  Curry 
was  invited  to  become  its  president.  This  position  he 
declined,  but  in  1868  he  accepted  the  Chair  of  English  in 
that  institution.  Before  his  connection  with  Richmond 
College  ceased  he  had  filled,  for  a  season,  and  in  con- 
nection with  his  other  work,  the  Chair  of  Philosophy  and 


60  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

that  of  Constitutional  and  International  Law.  It  would 
be  hard  to  speak  too  highly  of  Dr.  Curry's  work  at  Rich- 
mond College.  He  was  most  popular  among  the  stu- 
dents, and  his  influence  upon  them  as  regards  their  study, 
their  ideals,  their  lives,  was  inspirational,  enlarging  and 
uplifting  in  a  most  wonderful  way.  His  college  duties 
by  no  means  completed  the  sphere  of  his  service  to  his 
denomination,  the  State,  and  the  country.  He  was  a 
leader  among  Virginia  Baptists,  taking  an  active  part  in 
the  Memorial  Campaign  for  the  endowment  of  Rich- 
mond College,  in  1873,  and  proving  himself  the  champion 
of  the  great  causes  of  education  and  foreign  missions 
by  his  eloquent  addresses  at  district  associations  and 
other  gatherings  all  over  the  State.  Before  a  great 
throng  of  people,  on  the  campus  of  Richmond  College,  in 
June,  1873,  he  delivered  a  memorable  address  on  the 
struggles  of  Virginia  Baptists  for  religious  liberty.  The 
same  year  an  address  on  much  the  same  subject  before 
the  Evangelical  Alliance  of  the  World  offended  many, 
but  was  clear  evidence  of  his  willingness  to  proclaim  and 
advocate  the  truth  anywhere.  Work  awaited  him  in 
every  direction,  and  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  chronicle 
here  all  the  varied  forms  of  his  energetic  and  versatile 
service.  He  was  the  admirable  moderator  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Baptist  General  Association  for  five  years,  and  for 
twelve  years  the  President  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  Upon  all  manner 
of  public  occasions  he  was  in  demand  for  sermons, 
addresses,  and  speeches,  his  matchless  oratory  always 
thrilling  the  crowds.  During  the  "Readjusted'  fight  in 
the  seventies  he  strongly  championed  the  payment  of 
the  debt,  and  in  defense  of  this  proposition  delivered, 
upon  the  request  of  many  leading  citizens  of  Richmond, 
an  address  at  Mozart  Hall  entitled  "Law  and  Morals," 
and  later  discussed  the  issue  of  the  day  in  various  parts 


JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE  CURRY  hi 

of  the  State.    Dr.  Curry  regarded  this  address  at  Mozart 
Hall  as  one  of  the  best  efforts  of  his  life. 

In  1881  Dr.  Curry  was  elected  Agent  of  the  Peabody 
Fund.  In  1866  Mr.  George  Peabody  gave  $3,000,000 
to  be  used  to  promote  education  in  the  South.  The 
administration  of  this  Fund  was  committed  to  a  self- 
perpetuating  Board  of  sixteen.  To  read  the  names  of 
the  sixteen  men  originally  composing  the  Board,  and 
to  remember  that  first  and  last  four  presidents  of  tin- 
United  States  were  members  of  this  Board,  gives 
undoubted  evidence  of  the  dignity  and  ability  of  this 
body.  The  original  sixteen  members  were  :  Hon.  Robert 
C.  Winthrop,  Hon.  Hamilton  Fish,  Bishop  Chas.  P. 
Mcllwaine,  General  U.  S.  Grant,  Admiral  D.  G.  Farra- 
gut,  Hon.  John  H.  Clifford,  Hon.  William  L.  Evarts, 
Hon.  Wm.  C.  Rives,  Gen.  William  Aiken,  Hon.  William 
A.  Graham,  Charles  Macalester,  Esq.,  Geo.  W.  Riggs, 
Esq.,  Edward  A.  Bradford,  Esq.,  George  N.  Eaton,  Esq., 
George  Peabody  Russell,  Samuel  Witmore,  Esq.  Rev. 
Dr.  Barnes  Sears  was  the  first  agent  of  this  Fund.  Be- 
fore his  death,  which  took  place  July  6,  1880,  he  had 
suggested  Dr.  Curry  as  the  man  of  all  others  to  take  up 
the  work.  Dr.  Sears  had  so  stimulated  State  aid  to  public 
education  that  before  his  death  "all  of  the  eleven  States 
composing  the  Confederate  States  had  established  public- 
school  systems,  at  least  on  paper."  Yet  the  work  to  be 
done  was  only  fairly  begun.  Under  Dr.  Curry  the  plans 
of  the  work  were  somewhat  modified  and  a  large  part  of 
the  appropriations  made  went  for  normal  schools.  Dr. 
Curry  spent  much  of  his  time  and  energy  traveling  all 
over  the  South,  seeking  to  quicken  interest  in  education 
by  his  addresses  and  personal  work.  He  addressed  the 
legislature  of  every  Southern  State,  appearing  before 
some  of  these  bodies  again  and  again.  He  championed 
the  cause  of  the  negro  as  well  as  that  of  the  white  child. 


62  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

showing  that  to  limit  the  funds  for  the  negro  to  the  reve- 
nue from  their  taxes  would  be  most  unwise.  What  has 
been  already  said  about  Dr.  Curry  must  in  a  measure 
suggest  how  admirably  qualified  he  was  for  this  great 
work.  As  the  years  passed,  the  Board  realized  more 
and  more  how  valuable  his  services  were.  A  most  warm 
friendship  grew  up  between  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Dr. 
Curry;  they  were  devoted  to  the  work  they  had  in  hand 
and  to  each  other.  Greatly  to  his  surprise,  in  1885 
Dr.  Curry  received,  through  Thomas  F.  Bayard,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  the  announcement  that  President  Cleveland 
offered  him  the  mission  to  Spain. 

With  no  small  degree  of  reluctance  did  Dr.  Curry 
resign  a  work  which  appealed  to  the  noblest  emotions 
of  his  being  and  called  into  exercise  his  best  powers.  As 
for  the  Board,  they  so  thoroughly  believed  that  the  mis- 
sion to  Spain  would  prove  a  mere  interlude  in  Dr.  Curry's 
career,  that  they  appointed  one  pro  tempore  to  carry  on 
the  work.  The  sojourn  of  Dr.  Curry  and  his  wife  at  the 
court  of  Madrid  was  at  once  most  delightful  to  them  and 
of  most  valuable  service  to  the  United  States.  They 
established  a  new  record  for  America  in  the  brilliancy 
and  charm  of  their  social  functions,  and  came  to  have  a 
real  and  lasting  friendship  with  the  royal  family;  but 
this  was  not  all.  Dr.  Curry  was  able  to  overcome  the 
exasperating  procrastination  for  which  the  Spanish 
Government  is  famous  and  to  carry  through  measures 
of  importance  touching  the  commercial  relations  of  the 
two  countries  that  had  hung  fire  for  years.  So  acceptable 
was  Dr.  Curry  both  to  Spain  and  the  United  States  in 
the  position  of  ambassador  that  years  later,  after  his 
return  to  America,  special  request  came  to  Washington 
that  Dr.  Curry  should  represent  our  country  at  the  cere- 
monies connected  with  the  coming  of  age  of  the  Spanish 
King,  and  Spain's  request  was  granted. 


JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE  CURRY          63 

After  four  years  in  Madrid,  Dr.  Curry,  appointed  a 
second  time  as  its  agent,  took  up  once  more  the  work  of 
the  Peabody  Fund.  This  work  he  prosecuted,  with  won- 
derful enthusiasm  and  zeal,  practically  up  to  the  time  of 
his  death.  On  October  30,  1890,  Dr.  Curry  was  called 
to  be  the  executive  officer  of  the  Slater  Fund.  The  pur- 
pose of  the  giver  of  this  Fund  was  much  the  same  as 
that  which  prompted  Mr.  Peabody 's  great  gift,  save  that 
it  was  exclusively  for  the  education  of  the  negro  race. 
For  many  reasons  it  was  highly  fitting  that  one  man 
should  represent  both  of  these  great  benefactions.  Space 
does  not  permit  the  detailed  story  of  Dr.  Curry's  rela- 
tion to  the  General  Education  Board  and  to  the  Southern 
Education  Board,  bodies  which  perhaps  had  scarcely 
more  than  fairly  entered  upon  their  career  of  usefulness 
when  his  life  closed,  and  yet  it  is  very  remarkable  that 
one  man  should  have  been  associated,  as  he  was,  with 
four  such  organizations.  In  1905,  after  Dr.  Curry's 
death,  upon  the  gift  by  Mr.  Rockefeller  of  $100,000,  the 
Curry  Memorial  School  of  Education  was  established  at 
the  University  of  Virginia. 

In  1902  Dr.  Curry's  health  began  to  fail.  Yet  he  went 
on  with  his  work.  His  physical  vigor  and  endurance  had 
been  wonderful  all  through  his  manhood  years  and  one 
element  in  his  success  and  far-reaching  and  varied 
service  and  usefulness.  He  was  so  full  of  vigor  and  so 
preserved  his  youthful  spring  and  hope  fulness,  that  it 
was  hard  to  realize  when  the  end  came  that  he  had  almost 
reached  the  Psalmist's  extreme  limit  of  fourscore  years. 
He  passed  away  on  Thursday,  February  12,  1903,  at  the 
residence  of  his  brother-in-law,  Col.  John  A.  Connally, 
near  Asheville,  N.  C.  The  funeral  took  place  in  Rich- 
mond, Sunday,  February  15,  and,  in  accordance  with 
Dr.  Curry's  wishes,  was  in  the  Richmond  College  Chapel. 
The  funeral  services  were  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr.  W.  C. 
Bitting,  of  Xe\v  York,  assisted  by  Drs.  C.  H.  Ryland. 


64  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

George  Cooper,  and  Wm.  E.  Hatcher.  The  burial  was 
in  Hollywood.  The  grave  is  near  that  of  Jefferson 
Davis,  and  not  far  away  are  the  graves  of  J.  B.  Jeter  and 
H.  H.  Harris.  Mrs.  Curry,  who  was  ill  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  was  laid  beside  him  in  Hollywood  in  the  brief 
space  of  three  months. 

Dr.  Curry,  in  addition  to  all  his  other  activities,  was 
an  author.  Not  to  speak  of  his  contributions  to  maga- 
zines and  papers,  the  list  of  his  books  is  as  follows: 
"Constitutional  Government  in  Spain,"  "Life  of  William 
E.  Gladstone,"  "The  Southern  States  of  the  American 
Union,"  "Sketch  of  George  Peabody  and  a  History  of 
the  Peabody  Education  Fund  Through  Thirty  Years," 
"Civil  History  of  the  Government  of  the  Confederate 
States,  With  Some  Personal  Reminiscences." 

Dr.  Curry  was  an  orator  and  a  statesman,  a  man  of 
strong  convictions,  a  courteous  gentleman,  an  humble 
Christian,  an  indefatigable  worker,  the  enthusiastic 
champion  of  education,  a  citizen  of  the  world,  an  ardent 
Southerner,  and  a  most  patriotic  American.  His  sympa- 
thies were  broad,  his  spirit  at  once  humble  yet  ambitious. 
The  range  of  his  life — his  friendships  and  his  activities- 
was  wide.  In  his  day  he  undertook  with  great  success 
work  in  many  different  fields  of  human  endeavor,  and 
came  into  personal  touch  with  a  very  large  number  of 
the  distinguished  men  in  America  and  Europe.  While 
accustomed  to  have,  during  a  large  part  of  his  life,  many 
comforts  and  even  luxuries,  still  high  thinking  rather 
than  high  living  always  appealed  to  him.  Though  it  was 
his  lot  to  hold  converse  with  kings  and  others  high  in 
authority  and  place,  yet  he  was  approachable,  and  made 
the  youngest  and  humblest  at  ease  in  his  presence.  He 
was  the  friend  and  inspiration  of  young  men,  the  pro- 
moter of  education  in  all  of  its  phases,  the  earnest, 
humble  follower  of  Jesus.  When  shall  we  look  upon 
his  like  again  ? 


R.  ATWELL  TUCKER 

1857-1903 

On  Sunday,  July  21,  1901,  at  Lawrenceville,  Bruns- 
wick County,  Virginia,  a  new  meeting-house  was  dedi- 
cated, Rev.  Dr.  W.  E.  Hatcher  preaching  the  sermon. 
The  next  issue  of  the  Religious  Herald  presented  pic- 
tures of  the  new  church,  a  building  seating  250  persons 
and  costing  about  $3,000,  and  of  the  pastor,  Rev.  R. 
Atwell  Tucker.  Less  than  two  years  later  the  little 
Brunswick  town  and  church  took  part  in  a  service  con- 
ducted by  Rev.  Mr.  Boggs,  of  the  Methodist  Church ;  it 
was  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Tucker,  who  died  on  May  13, 
1903,  from  an  attack  of  pneumonia.  In  his  forty-sixth 
year,  and  probably  in  his  most  successful  pastorate,  he 
was  called  to  his  eternal  reward.  Besides  Lawrenceville. 
the  field  (which  was  helped  by  the  State  Mission  Board  ) 
included  the  James'  Square  and  Reedy  Creek  Churches. 
In  the  early  part  of  the  year  Mr.  Tucker  had  been  absent 
from  his  work  for  some  six  weeks  ministering  to  his 
father  and  mother,  who  were  both  dangerously  ill.  In 
Amherst  County,  where  he  was  born  September  24, 
1857,  Mr.  Tucker  labored  in  his  early  ministry,  being 
pastor  of  Prospect  Church.  After  his  conversion,  in 
1875,  and  his  baptism,  Rev.  S.  P.  Massie  administering 
the  ordinance,  he  attended  Richmond  College,  and,  after 
he  had  commenced  his  work  as  a  minister,  he  went  for  a 
session  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary. 
He  was  warm  hearted  and  genial,  enjoying  greatly  the 
companionship  of  his  brethren  in  the  ministry.  While 
pastor  at  Clifton  Forge  and  Sharon  Churches  (Augusta 
Association),  in  a  letter  to  the  Herald,  just  after  he  had 

65 


66  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

a  visit  from  his  college  mate,  Rev.  W.  C.  Tyree,  and 
Rev.  Mr.  Chapman,  he  wrote:  "I  often  meet  with 
ministers  of  other  denominations,  but  rarely  ever  see  a 
Baptist  preacher."  In  the  summer  of  1891,  at  his 
Natural  Bridge  Church,  he  was  assisted  by  Rev.  P.  G. 
Elson  in  a  meeting  which  resulted  in  the  addition,  by 
baptism,  of  20  to  the  church.  During  the  meeting 
Rev.  A.  E.  Dickinson,  Rev.  J.  T.  Carpenter,  Rev.  J.  H. 
Harris,  and  Prof.  F.  A.  Byerly  were  present  at  one  or 
more  of  the  services,  and  Col.  E.  G.  Peyton  hospitably 
entertained  without  charge,  some  two  weeks,  the  preachers 
at  the  Natural  Bridge  Hotel  during  the  progress  of  the 
meeting.  Besides  the  churches  already  named,  the  fol- 
lowing should  be  set  down  as  among  those  to  which 
Mr.  Tucker  ministered:  Springwood  (Valley  Associa- 
tion), Flint  Hill,  Washington,  and  Sperryville  (Shiloh 
Association).  "As  a  man  he  was  modest,  unassuming 
and  chaste.  .  .  .  As  a  Christian  his  daily  task  was 
to  walk  with  God.  ...  As  a  pastor  he  was  atten- 
tive, sympathetic,  and  vigilant." 


ALEXANDER  EUBANK 

1826-1903 

In  Scotland  preachers  have  always  held  high  rank  as 
scholars,  and  not  unfrequently  the  records  show  how 
they  took  in  hand  the  training  of  ambitious  youths. 
Likewise  in  Virginia  many  a  preacher  has  been  a  teacher ; 
this  has  been  true  of  the  Baptist  ministers.  Preaching 
and  teaching  have  gone  together.  This  was  the  case  in 
the  career  of  Rev.  Alexander  Eubank.  While  he  has  a 
long  record  as  pastor  and  preacher,  perhaps  he  will  be 
best  remembered  for  his  work  in  the  Sunnyside 
Academy,  a  boarding-school  for  boys,  that  he  established 
and  carried  on  for  some  forty  years  at  his  own  home 
in  Bedford  County.  As  a  teacher  he  worked  also  for 
two  years  at  Big  Island,  and  for  four  at  Charlottesville. 
Thus  he  trained  "for  high  and  useful  pursuits  hundreds 
of  youths  and  young  men."  In  many  cases  he  helped 
students  financially,  sometimes  being  afterwards  re- 
couped and  sometimes  not.  For  this  work  of  the  school- 
room he  had  been  excellently  prepared.  He  studied  at 
Richmond  College  the  five  sessions  from  1847  to  1852, 
in  this  last  year  taking  his  Bachelor  of  Arts  degree.  He 
spent  the  session  of  1853  to  1854  at  the  University  of 
Virginia,  taking  the  classes  of  Natural  Philosophy  and 
Moral  Philosophy.  Sunnyside  Academy  was  organized 
about  1867,  and  had  from  twenty  to  forty  pupils  through- 
out its  career.  For  a  part  of  the  time  Mr.  Eubank's  son 
was  associated  with  him  in  this  school.  Mr.  Eubank  was 
an  excellent  teacher  and  won  the  affection  and  esteem  of 
his  students. 

When  still  quite  a  young  man  he  was  ordained  to  the 
ministry,  his  first  church,  which  he  served  from  1855  for 

67 


68  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

eight  years,  being  Liberty,  at  Bedford.  Among  the  other 
churches  of  the  Strawberry  Association  of  which  he 
was  pastor  were  these:  Mt.  Olivet,  Hunting  Creek, 
Suck  Spring,  Quakers,  Pleasant  View,  Burton's  Creek, 
Halesford,  Flint  Hill,  Diamond  Hill,  Morgan's,  Wolf 
Hill,  Bethlehem,  and  Difficult  Creek.  He  was  pastor  for 
a  time  of  Hebron,  Appomattox  Association.  He  was  a 
leader  in  the  Strawberry  Association,  and  his  appoint- 
ment to  read  an  essay  at  the  Ministers'  and  Deacons' 
Meeting  in  November,  1884,  on  the  Bible  Teaching  as  to 
Man's  Total  Depravity,  was  doubtless  only  one  of  many 
such  duties  that  fell  to  his  hands. 

He  was  born  in  King  and  Queen  County,  Virginia,  in 
1826,  and  his  death  took  place  at  his  home,  "Sunnyside," 
near  Bedford  City,  on  Saturday,  July  18,  1903 ;  he  had 
been  ill  about  a  month.  He  was  married  in  early  life  to 
Miss  Emma  Dickinson,  of  Charlottesville,  Va. ;  she  and 
five  children  survived  him. 


OSCAR  PARISH  FLIPPO 

1835-1903 

That  interesting  section  of  Virginia,  known  as  the 
Northern  Neck,  which  has  given  birth  to  so  many  of  the 
State's  greatest  men,  was  where  Oscar  Parish  Flippo 
first  saw  the  light.  He  was  born  at  Lebanon,  Lancaster 
County,  January  1,  1835.  His  parents,  James  P.  and 
Frances  Carter  Flippo,  were  both  members  of  the 
Morattico  Baptist  Church.  Unfortunately  he  had  small 
opportunity  to  know  his  mother,  for  when  he  was  not  yet 
three  years  old  she  died  of  a  cancer,  after  having  been 
for  many  months  a  great  sufferer.  From  her  early  life 
she  was  a  professor  of  religion,  and  during  her  many 
days  and  months  of  intense  pain  her  resignation  to 
the  will  of  God  was  a  lesson  and  example  to  all.  Her 
cheerful  and  affectionate  disposition  seems  to  have  de- 
scended to  her  son,  whom  this  sketch  describes.  Little  is 
known  of  his  youth,  and  this  is  the  more  to  be  regretted, 
as  the  energy  and  enthusiasm  which  marked  his  manhood 
years  suggest  that  his  earlier  days  were  not  devoid  of 
adventure  and  thrilling  incidents.  Save  that  he  was 
educated  at  Kilmarnock  Academy  a  veil  is  over  his  life 
until  we  find  him,  in  1855,  teaching  at  Quantico, 
Wicomico  County,  Maryland.  Here  he  met  and  was 
charmed  by  Miss  Roxie  Collier,  a  young  lady,  almost  two 
years  his  junior,  of  an  Episcopal  family,  and  herself  a 
member  of  that  church  from  her  early  childhood.  She 
was  gentle,  modest,  unobtrusive,  "beautiful  of  form,  of 
face,  and  mien,"  of  pure  heart  and  sweet  temper.  He 
sought  her  acquaintance,  loved  her  because  he  "could  not 
help  it,"  and  on  January  3,  1856,  she  became  his  bride. 
Their  first-born  child  lived  only  some  ten  months. 

69 


70  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

He  was  licensed  to  preach  in  1857  and  ordained  to 
the  gospel  ministry  at  Salisbury,  Md.,  his  first  pastorate, 
July  26,  1859.  The  "charge"  delivered  upon  this  occa- 
sion by  Rev.  John  Berg,  of  Baltimore,  was  printed.  Mr. 
Berg  based  his  remarks  upon  Paul's  exhortation  to 
Timothy :  "Preach  the  word,"  and  called  upon  the  young 
preacher  to  consider:  "What  you  are  to  preach;  how 
you  are  to  preach;  and  what  must  be  observed  by  you 
in  order  to  succeed."  Maryland  has  seemed  to  be  not  a 
very  favorable  soil  for  Baptists,  and  in  his  two  years  at 
Salisbury  Mr.  Flippo  had  many  trials,  but  his  fraternal 
spirit  and  tact  helped  him  toward  success.  Sermons 
were  preached  in  all  the  other  churches  against  immer- 
sion. The  other  pastors  did  the  preaching  on  this  subject 
while  he  did  the  baptizing.  He  encountered  opposition 
from  the  old-school  Baptists.  Subsequently,  however, 
the  pastor  of  this  church  was  converted,  and  wrote  to 
Mr.  Flippo  that  "God  had  delivered  him  from  bigotry 
and  Bebeeism."  It  seems  strange  that  any  one  could 
object  to  a  preacher's  passing  through  his  field  in  order 
to  baptize,  yet  such  a  man  lived  at  Salisbury,  though  his 
name  is  withheld,  as  the  following  gives  evidence : 

"Received  of  Rev.  O.  F.  Flippo  the  balance  in  full  of  Five  Dollars 
due  me  for  the  privilege  of  passing  through  my  lot  three  times  to 
the  water  to  baptize. 


"Teste:   J.  D.  Johnson. 

While  he  was  in  Salisbury  the  Baptists  bought  the  old 
frame  Presbyterian  Church  and  moved  it  to  Division 
Street.  With  the  other  pastors  of  the  town,  Mr.  Waite 
(Presbyterian),  Mr.  Wallace  and  Mr.  Morgan  (Metho- 
dist), and  Mr.  Augustus  White  (Episcopalian),  Mr. 
Flippo  sustained  pleasant  relations.  When  the  Episcopal 
Church  was  burned  this  congregation  was  offered  and 
accepted  the  use  of  the  Baptist  meeting-house. 


OSCAR  PARISH  FLIPPO  71 

One  cold  Christmas  Eve  in  Salisbury  Mr.  Flippo 
found  on  the  streets  two  boys  whose  poverty  and  rags 
put  them  in  painful  contrast  to  other  boys,  who  had 
bright  visions  of  the  good  things  and  many  presents  of 
the  next  day.  The  preacher  invited  them  to  come  to  his 
house  the  following  morning.  They  came,  and  received 
toys,  candy,  nuts,  and  some  articles  of  clothes  for  them- 
selves and  their  little  sister.  Comment  is  unnecessary. 

From  1861,  for  some  seven  years,  Mr.  Flippo  was 
pastor  of  Newton,  Pitts  Creek,  Rehoboth  and  Chinco- 
teague  Churches.  During  this  period  he  baptized  two 
hundred  persons.  In  1863  he  and  his  wife  passed 
through  a  most  trying  ordeal.  Their  home  was  attacked 
by  the  dreaded  disease,  smallpox.  One  night,  when  these 
parents  were  nursing  their  daughter  Sallie,  looking  for 
her  death  and  thinking  how,  by  themselves,  they  would 
have  to  shroud  and  bury  her,  Mrs.  Flippo  announced  to 
her  husband  her  purpose  to  be  baptized  and  unite  with 
his  church.  In  the  eight  years  of  their  married  life  he 
had  never  urged  her  to  take  this  step;  she  had  come  to 
this  decision  by  herself.  Years  before  her  marriage, 
while  on  a  visit  to  Baltimore,  she  had  seen  Dr.  Richard 
Fuller  baptize  at  the  Seventh  Church,  and  the  deep 
impression  made  then  had  never  been  effaced.  Her  bap- 
tism took  place  on  a  cold  day,  but  she  chose  the  river 
rather  than  the  baptistery,  and  was  buried  with  Christ  in 
baptism  at  Cedar  Hall,  in  the  Pocomoke  River,  when 
4 'the  wind  was  high  and  the  waves  were  beating  on  the 
shore  with  furious  rage."  On  one  occasion,  in  Newtown, 
the  colored  Methodist  pastor  asked  Mr.  Flippo  to  preach 
to  his  people  on  baptism.  He  did  so,  and,  as  a  result 
of  the  sermon,  he  baptized  the  pastor  and  ten  of  the 
members;  the  pastor  himself  baptized  the  rest.  Echoes 
of  various  threats  made  to  keep  Mr.  Flippo  from  preach- 
ing, as,  for  example,  that  his  horse  would  be  killed,  come 


VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

down  to  us,  but  none  of  these  things  moved  him,  and 
kindness  suffered  long  and  conquered. 

In  March,  1868,  Mr.  Flippo  became  pastor  of  the  Bap- 
tist Church  at  Dover,  Del.  Upon  his  arrival  things  were 
in  a  deplorable  condition.  The  church  doors  had  been 
closed  and  no  baptisms  had  taken  place  for  almost  two 
years.  During  his  pastorate  of  over  two  years  nearly 
one  hundred  persons  were  baptized.  On  November  8, 
1869,  he  began  a  campaign  for  funds  with  which  to  pur- 
chase the  Wyoming  Institute,  his  pulpit  during  his 
absence  being  filled  by  Rev.  George  Bradford.  The  cam- 
paign was  successful,  and  not  only  was  the  Institute  pur- 
chased, but  a  Baptist  Church,  in  the  village  of  Wyoming 
(three  miles  south  of  Dover),  was  established  several 
years  later,  largely  the  result  of  a  meeting  Mr.  Flippo 
had  held.  While  pastor  at  Dover  Mr.  Flippo  was  chap- 
lain for  one  session  of  the  State  Legislature.  On  Sep- 
tember 15,  1870,  Mr.  Flippo  resigned  at  Dover  to  become 
General  Missionary  in  Delaware  of  the  American  Baptist 
Home  Missionary  Society.  During  his  years  in  Dela- 
ware, both  as  pastor  and  as  missionary,  he  did  much  to 
quicken  the  life  of  the  Baptist  cause  in  the  State.  He 
declared:  "It  pays  to  cultivate  Delaware."  As  editor 
and  publisher  of  The  Baptist  Visitor,  he  accomplished 
great  good  and  did  much  to  bring  the  history,  work,  and 
principles  of  the  Baptists  before  the  people.  While 
working  as  General  Missionary  he  was  invited,  by  a 
congregation  of  Methodist  Protestants  at  Vernon,  Kent 
County,  to  preach  for  them.  In  December,  1870,  he 
complied  with  this  request.  He  was  asked  to  come  back 
and  hold  a  protracted  meeting.  This  he  did.  In  the 
midst  of  the  meeting  the  people  requested  him  to  preach 
a  series  of  sermons  on  the  "Principles  and  Practices  of 
Baptists."  This  he  agreed  to  do  provided  they  would 
follow  him  through  "with  the  New  Testament  in  hand 


OSCAR  PARISH  FLIPPO  73 

and  not  get  mad."  Before  he  completed  this  series  of 
sermons  the  pastor,  Rev.  Richard  H.  Merrikin,  and  all 
the  members  asked  to  be  baptized.  They  were  baptized 
on  a  stormy  day,  March  12,  1871,  and  on  the  last  Lord's 
I  )ay  of  the  following  month  a  Baptist  Church,  known  as 
Zion,  was  organized  and  Mr.  Merrikin  ordained  as  a 
Baptist  minister  and  pastor  of  the  church.  The  follow- 
ing November  the  church  dedicated  a  beautiful  Gothic 
meeting-house,  Mr.  Flippo  preaching  the  sermon.  In  a 
somewhat  similar  manner  the  preaching  of  Baptist 
principles  by  Mr.  Flippo  at  the  village  of  Magnolia  led 
to  the  establishment  of  a  Baptist  Church  there  and  the 
erection  of  a  meeting-house. 

Mr.  Flippo  became  pastor  of  the  Waverly  Baptist 
Church,  Baltimore,  Md.,  in  1873.  One  of  the  objects 
of  his  removal  from  Delaware  to  Maryland  was  not 
obtained.  It  had  been  hoped  that  "the  higher  land  and 
purer  air  of  this  beautiful  village  overlooking  Baltimore" 
would  restrain  disease  and  lengthen  out  the  life  of  Mrs. 
Flippo.  It  was  not  to  be  so.  After  months  of  pain  and 
weariness  she  departed  this  life  May  1,  1874.  Mr. 
Klippo  was  pastor  in  Waverly  some  five  years,  and 
during  this  time  was  elected  Moderator  of  the  Maryland 
'•aptist  Union  Association.  On  November  25,  1877,  he 
f>  rame  a  Virginia  pastor,  taking  charge  of  the  field  com- 
posed of  the  Suffolk,  Great  Fork,  and  Boykins  Churches. 
( )n  this  field  he  worked  as  the  missionary  of  the  State 
Mission  Board  of  the  Virginia  Baptist  General  Associa- 
tion. The  Suffolk  Church  to-day  has  460  members;  then 
it  had  only  53,  while  the  number  at  Boykins  was  67,  and 
at  Great  Fork  209.  On  January  1,  1878,  Mr.  Flippo 
was  married  to  Miss  Mollie  E.  Emmert,  of  Washington 
County,  Maryland,  Rev.  A.  E.  Rogers  officiating.  Mr. 
Klippo  left  the  Suffolk  field  to  become  pastor  in  Alex- 
andria in  1881.  His  pastorate  here  was  a  prosperous 


74  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

one,  and  there  was  general  regret  on  the  part  of  his 
church  and  the  community  when  he  resigned  to  become 
pastor  in  Roanoke,  Va.  His  pastorate  in  Roanoke  began 
October  6,  1886.  According  to  the  plan  agreed  upon, 
every  fourth  Sunday  morning  he  preached  for  Hebron 
Church  at  the  village  of  Bonsacks,  some  seven  miles 
from  Roanoke.  These  services  were  held  in  the  Metho- 
dist Church  until,  through  his  leadership,  a  Baptist 
meeting-house  at  Bonsacks  was  dedicated  in  the  spring  of 
1889.  During  that  same  spring  steps  were  taken  for  the 
erection  of  a  new  and  handsome  church  house  in  Roan- 
oke. On  April  21st  a  subscription  of  $8,000  toward 
the  new  house  was  taken.  On  July  26,  1891,  the 
spacious  brick  structure  standing  alongside  the  old  frame 
meeting-house  was  dedicated.  To-day  a  marble  tablet  in 
memory  of  O.  F.  Flippo  adorns  the  walls  of  the  main 
audience  room.  The  Sunday  school,  as  well  as  the 
church,  grew  rapidly  under  his  administration.  Take, 
for  example,  these  figures:  January  1,  1891,  the  Sunday 
school  numbered  245,  and  on  January  1,  1892,  the  figures 
were  394.  In  1886  the  church  had  116  members,  and  in 
1893,  the  year  when  Mr.  Flippo  resigned,  the  figures 
were  559.  Nor  was  his  work  confined  to  his  own  church. 
During  his  pastorate  the  church  at  Vinton,  a  suburb  of 
Roanoke,  was  established,  and  also  a  mission  Sunday 
school  in  East  Roanoke,  which  has  since  developed  into 
the  Belmont  Church.  That  Mr.  Flippo  was  popular  with 
those  outside  his  own  church,  as  well  as  with  his  own 
members,  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  one  day  he  was  the 
recipient  of  a  handsome  buggy,  the  gift  of  Mr.  N.  T. 
Nininger.  The  whip  and  lap  robe  that  accompanied  the 
buggy  were  a  present  from  Mr.  M.  H.  Eurman.  Neither 
of  these  gentlemen  was  a  member  of  his  church.  This 
fortunate  pastor  had  no  need  to  own  a  horse  for  his  new 


OSCAR  PARISH  FLIPPO  75 

buggy,  as,  at  the  stable  of  Horton  &  Roberts,  one  was 
always  at  his  disposal  free  of  cost. 

Mr.  Flippo  was  regular  in  his  attendance  on  the  meet- 
ings of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  When  the 
Convention  met  in  Louisville,  in  1899,  an  amusing  inci- 
dent took  place.  The  city  was  crowded  with  visitors,  as, 
besides  the  Convention,  the  races,  and  a  tent  meeting 
conducted  by  Sam  Jones,  were  going  on.  One  day,  as 
Mr.  Flippo  was  talking  to  a  circle  of  friends  in  the 
gentlemen's  room  of  the  Gait  House,  a  handsome,  well- 
dressed  stranger  walked  up  and  asked  them  to  take  a 
"\\  iniwee"  with  him.  Mr.  Flippo  said :  "You  will  have 
to  level  yourself;  we  don't  know  what  that  means." 
"Well,"  answered  the  stranger,  "come  and  take  a  'nipper' 
with  me."  Mr.  Flippo  replied:  "I  don't  know  what  you 
mean."  The  stranger  then  became  very  emphatic  and 
profane,  and  said :  "You  need  not  put  up  a  case  of  inno- 
cence. Come  and  take  a  drink  with  me."  Mr.  Flippo 
was  disposed  to  chaff  the  man  a  bit  farther,  but  another 
one  in  the  circle  said:  "You  do  not  know  us.  We  are 
here  attending  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  and 
several  of  this  crowd  are  clergymen."  This  information 
called  forth  an  apology  and  the  statement  that  he  was  a 
Catholic  and  in  Louisville  with  a  string  of  horses  for  the 
races.  After  further  conversation  he  pulled  out  a  roll  of 
money  and,  notwithstanding  earnest  protest,  was  not 
satisfied  until  he  had  persuaded  Mr.  Flippo  to  accept  a 
five-dollar  bill,  to  be  used  for  "some  of  your  charities." 

In  July,  1893,  Dr.  Flippo  resigned  the  church  in  Roan- 
oke  to  accept  the  position  of  District  Secretary  of  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  and  went  to 
Philadelphia  to  live,  he  and  his  wife  becoming  members 
of  the  Fifth  Baptist  Church  of  that  city.  To  this  work 
Dr.  Flippo  gave  twelve  years.  More  than  once  before 
the  Publication  Society  had  sought  to  secure  his  services, 


76  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

realizing  how  well  adapted  he  was  for  this  kind  of  work. 
To  present  the  claims  of  the  Society  and  to  take  collec- 
tions, to  dedicate  churches  and  pay  debts  on  them,  were 
some  of  the  forms  his  varied  service  for  the  Society  took. 
With  great  energy,  enthusiasm,  and  hard  work  he  sought 
to  do  good  in  this  wide  and  important  field.  Take  some 
illustrations  of  his  busy,  active  life.  On  the  first  Sunday 
of  the  century  he  was  with  the  saints  at  Turtle  Creek, 
preaching  the  dedication  sermon  of  their  new  meeting- 
house, and  at  its  close  raising  $2,400  to  pay  the  debt.  The 
next  night  he  delivered  one  of  his  popular  lectures  and 
went  home  with  a  neat  sum  for  the  Society.  At  another 
time  we  see  him  at  Flatwoods,  in  the  Monongahela  Asso- 
ciation, for  Saturday  and  Sunday.  A  storm  was  raging 
and  the  mud  was  deep,  but,  nevertheless,  on  Saturday 
night  the  lecture  went  well,  and  Sunday,  though  rain  and 
wind  and  mud  still  held  sway,  the  people  heard  about 
the  work  of  the  Society  and  made  a  liberal  contribution. 
Dr.  Flippo's  ability  as  a  popular  lecturer  stood  him  in 
good  stead  in  his  service  for  the  Society.  The  incidents 
just  given  explain  how  this  was  done.  For  many  years 
he  had  been  in  great  demand  as  a  lecturer,  not  only  for 
churches,  but  at  "Chautauquas"  and  other  similar  gather- 
ings. His  repertoire  comprised  the  following  lectures : 
"Tongue  and  Temper,"  " Difficulties,"  "The  Defeat  of 
Old  Fogyism  and  the  Onward  March  of  Mind,"  "Anger, 
or  the  Folly  of  Getting  Mad,"  "Keys  to  Unlock  Hearts," 
"Ice  in  the  Pulpit."  Of  all  these  lectures,  one  especially 
gave  Dr.  Flippo  far-reaching  reputation,  was  doubtless 
the  means  of  much  good,  and  will  contribute  no  little  to 
perpetuating  his  name  for  years  to  come.  The  title  of 
this  lecture,  "Ice  in  the  Pulpit  and  Who  Put  it  There," 
had  much  to  do  with  its  popularity.  With  impartiality 
he  laid  the  cause  of  coldness  in  the  pulpit  on  the  pastor 
and  people  alike.  In  this,  as  in  his  other  platform 


OSCAR  PARISH  FLIPPO 

addresses,  there  was  not  only  humor  and  an  effort  to 
make  people  laugh,  but  thought  and  sober  purpose  to 
uplift  and  do  good.  With  a  blending  of  humor,  pathos, 
satire,  and  homely  truth,  he  sought  to  accomplish  his  pur- 
pose. Doubtless  the  man's  personality,  his  robust  figure, 
his  voice,  with  its  wide  range  and  soft  modulations, 
helped  him  to  delight  and  help  audience  after  audience  all 
over  the  East  and  South.  In  this  connection  reference 
should  be  made  to  what  might  be  called  the  by-products 
of  his  ministry.  He  was  always  fond  of  poetry,  and 
loved  to  quote  from  the  poets  in  his  sermons,  addresses, 
and  articles  for  the  newspapers.  He  would  not  have 
made  claim  that  he  was  a  poet,  yet  verses  came  easily  to 
his  tongue,  and  upon  anniversary  and  other  such  occa- 
sions he  often  wrote  lines  to  do  honor  or  give  pleasure 
to  friends  or  comrades. 

On  February  28,  1903,  his  second  wife,  to  whom  he 
had  been  married  some  twenty-five  years,  and  who  was 
greatly  beloved  by  a  wide  circle  of  friends,  passed  away. 
About  a  year  later  failing  health  caused  him  to  resign 
his  position  with  the  Society,  though  as  Secretary 
Emeritus  his  connection  with  this  organization  continued 
up  to  his  death.  Even  on  his  sick  bed  he  wrote,  by 
dictation,  articles  for  the  papers,  and  when  so  feeble  that 
he  needed  assistance  in  dressing  he  got  up  and  went  to 
a  neighboring  church,  where  he  preached,  on  the  text 
"Who  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me/'  what  proved 
to  be  his  last  sermon.  Not  long  before  the  end  he  gave 
evidence  at  once  of  his  liberality  and  of  his  faith  in  the 
work  to  which  his  closing  years  were  dedicated  by  con- 
tributing enough  money  to  provide  for  a  colporteur 
wagon  for  the  State  of  Delaware,  to  bear  his  name  and 
to  carry  on  work  that  was  dear  to  his  heart  amidst  scenes 
where  he  had  labored.  On  August  3,  1903,  at  1006 
Washington  Street,  Wilmington,  Del.,  in  the  home  of 


78  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

his  daughter,  Mrs.  D.  J.  Beauchamp,  he  passed  to  his 
reward.  Funeral  services  were  held  at  Wilmington  and 
also  at  Martinsburg,  W.  Va.,  where,  in  Greenmount 
Cemetery,  his  body  was  laid  to  rest  beside  that  of  his 
wife.  He  left  five  children :  Messrs.  E.  L.  and  J.  P. 
Flippo,  of  Roanoke  City ;  Mrs.  George  Gravatt,  of  Hol- 
lins;  Mrs.  D.  J.  Beauchamp,  of  Wilmington,  Del,  and 
Mr.  O.  F.  Flippo,  Jr.,  of  Mount  Vernon,  Ohio. 


MARSHALL  W.  READ 
1813(?)-1903 

As  a  builder  of  meeting-houses  and  as  a  faithful 
minister  of  the  gospel  Rev.  Marshall  W.  Read  is  remem- 
bered in  the  Roanoke  Association.  Here  he  labored  for 
forty  years.  He  built  the  meeting-houses  at  Chatham, 
Hollywood,  Prospect,  and  Sharon.  Possibly  other 
houses  of  God  were  erected  through  his  efforts ;  the  table 
of  work  in  the  report  of  the  State  Mission  Board  year 
by  year  has  more  than  once,  opposite  to  his  name,  such 
a  record  as  this:  "Organized  one  church,  in  construction 
two,  completed  one."  In  1873,  when  he  was  pastor  to 
four  State  Mission  points,  he  preached  149  sermons  and 
baptized  29  persons.  Mr.  J.  H.  Hargrave,  a  member  of 
the  Roanoke  Association,  says  of  Read :  "He  organized 
and  built  more  churches  than  any  other  man  who  ever 
labored  in  our  Association."  In  the  course  of  his 
ministry  he  served  these  churches  in  the  Roanoke: 
Hollywood,  Mt.  Vernon,  Liberty,  Galveston,  Shiloh, 
New  Prospect.  He  was  the  true  friend  of  the  Roanoke 
Female  College,  having  much  to  do  with  the  beginning 
of  this  seat  of  learning.  In  his  missionary  work  "he 
would  overcome  obstacles  that  would  dampen  and  chill 
the  ardor  of  other  men.  Nothing  but  success  and  victory 
would  satisfy  him  in  whatever  he  might  undertake." 
The  date  of  his  birth  has  not  been  ascertained ;  his  death 
occurred  August  22,  1903,  in  Bedford  County. 


79 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  WILLIAMS* 
1840-1893 

On  Friday,  August  25,  1893,  a  group  of  Baptists  were 
returning  to  their  homes,  by  way  of  Alexandria,  Mo., 
from  a  District  Association.  As  they  waited  for  the 
train,  one  of  the  company  suggested  that  they  should  sing 
some  hymns,  and  when  one  song  was  over  he  told  of  a 
baptism  he  had  performed  years  before  (of  which  occa- 
sion the  hymn  reminded  him),  when  the  ice  had  to  be 
broken  for  him  to  perform  the  ceremony.  In  a  moment 
his  head  had  fallen  on  his  breast  and  he  was  dead.  Dur- 
ing the  earlier  part  of  the  day,  at  the  Association,  he  had 
preached  and  spoken,  and  later  on  in  the  day  had  written 
a  number  of  letters  and  done  other  clerical  work.  This 
man,  to  whom  death  came  so  suddenly,  was  Rev.  Dr. 
William  Harrison  Williams,  who,  from  July  10,  1882, 
to  the  end,  was  editor  of  the  Central  Baptist,  the  organ 
of  Missouri  Baptists.  While  the  last  years  of  his  life 
were  given  to  Missouri,  Dr.  Williams  w;as  a  native  of 
Virginia,  where  he  was  educated  and  where  he  held 
several  pastorates. 

He  was  born  in  Richmond,  July  18,  1840.  In  March, 
1854,  he  was  baptized  by  Rev.  Dr.  Basil  Manly  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of  Richmond,  and 
on  April  25,  1858,  while  still  a  student  at  Richmond  Col- 
lege, was  licensed  to  preach.  In  July,  1861,  he  was 
graduated  from  Richmond  College  with  the  degree  of 
M.  A.  While  he  had  many  qualifications  for  a  business 
career  and  excellent  opportunities  in  this  direction,  he 
persisted  in  his  purpose  to  preach.  During  the  Civil  War, 
which  interrupted  his  course  at  the  Southern  Baptist 

*This  sketch  (since  it  belongs  to  a  former  period)  should  have 
been  in  the  "Supplement,"  rather  than  in  the  body  of  the  book. 

80 


WILLIAM  HARRISON  WILLIAMS          HI 

Theological  Seminary,  then  at  Greenville,  S.  C,  he  was 
useful  in  the  army  as  chaplain,  in  the  field,  and  at  Camp 
Winder,  Richmond.  His  first  pastorate  was  at  Freder- 
icksburg,  where  he  remained,  from  July,  1865,  some 
fourteen  months.  He  now  resumed  his  studies  at  Green- 
ville, and  after  two  sessions,  in  May,  1868,  received  his 
diploma  as  "full  graduate."  Tn  October,  1868,  he  became 
pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Charleston,  S.  C..  and 
after  eleven  months  left  Charleston  to  take  charge  of  the 
Baptist  Church  in  Staunton,  Va.  During  the  two  years 
of  his  pastorate  in  Staunton  there  was  established  in  that 
town,  under  the  presidency  of  Prof.  John  Hart,  a  dis- 
tinguished educator,  a  school  for  young  women.  In 
Tusralonsa,  also,  where  Dr.  Williams  became  pastor  in 
January,  1872,  there  was  a  school  for  young  women, 
known  as  the  Alabama  Central  Female  College.  During 
the  larger  part  of  his  residence  in  Tuscaloosa,  besides  his 
church  work  he  was  instructor  at  the  college  in  Moral 
Philosophy  and  English  Literature.  In  November,  1877, 
he  took  charge  of  the  church  at  Charlottesville,  Va. 
From  Charlottesville  he  moved  to  Missouri,  becoming  an 
editor. 

The  list  of  churches  of  which  Dr.  Williams  was  pastor 
gives  evidence  of  his  high  rank  as  a  preacher,  and  makes 
an  estimate  of  his  pulpit  work  unnecessary.  His  bearing 
was  courteous  and  gracious,  his  manner  winsome.  At 
associational  and  Sunday-school  gatherings  he  was 
always  a  welcome  speaker,  and  his  addresses  to  children 
gave  them  much  delight.  The  zeal  and  earnestness  of 
the  man  is  put  into  clear  light  by  an  incident  which  came 
to  the  knowledge  of  Rev.  N.  O.  Sowers.  Young  Wil- 
liams, at  the  age  of  eighteen,  undertook  colporteur  work 
in  Frederick  County,  Virginia.  In  his  first  visit  he 
encountered  an  infidel,  who  told  him  that  two-thirds  of 
the  preachers  were  going  to  hell.  This  rebuff  led  the 


82  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

young  colporteur  to  return  to  the  home  of  Mrs.  S.  S. 
Gore,  his  headquarters,  with  the  conviction  that  he 
needed  more  grace  for  his  work.  This  good  woman 
found  him  on  his  knees  wrestling  in  prayer  for  the  needed 
strength.  When  he  started  out  again  he  came  to  a  home 
where  the  parents  were  away  at  work;  here  he  taught 
the  children  about  God  and  Jesus  in  so  excellent  a  way 
that  the  parents  were  led  to  conversion  and  church  mem- 
bership. A  conversation  with  a  man  in  the  field  at  his 
work  made  such  an  impression  for  good  that  ten  years 
afterward  when  the  man  presented  himself  for  church 
membership  he  said  that  the  words  of  the  young  col- 
porteur had  led  him  to  Christ. 

Dr.  Williams  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  six  chil- 
dren, one  of  whom  is  now  a  minister  of  the  gospel, 
namely,  Rev.  Wm.  Harrison  Williams,  and  another, 
Mrs.  Everette  Gill,  missionary  to  Italy. 


JAMES  ALLISON  DAVIS 
1827-1903 

James  Allison  Davis  was  born  in  Washington  County. 
Virginia,  February  22,  1827.  While  his  early  educa- 
tional opportunities  were  not  good,  he  made  excellent  use 
of  the  chances  he  had,  and  at  the  age  of  twenty -two  was 
himself  a  school-teacher.  It  was  in  Caldwell  County, 
Kentucky,  that  he  wielded  the  pedagogue's  rod,  and  it 
was  at  this  period  and  place  that  he  was  born  again. 
Although  he  had  been  reared  under  Presbyterian  influ- 
ences, his  own  study  of  the  Scriptures  led  him  to  adopt 
Baptist  views,  and  he  was  baptized  by  Rev.  J.  W.  Mans- 
field (who  was  a  native  of  Albemarle  County,  Virginia) 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  Little  River  Church.  In  1850, 
at  Blountville,  Tenn.,  he  was  licensed  and  ordained,  Rev. 
Noah  Cate  being  the  moderator  of  the  presbytery.  His 
first  pastorate  was  of  the  Blountville  and  Holston 
Churches.  In  connection  with  this  pastorate  he  did  some 
evangelistic  work. 

In  1857  he  settled  at  Marion,  Va.,  organizing,  or 
reorganizing,  the  church  there,  with  19  members.  A 
meeting-house  was  erected  and  the  work  firmly  estab- 
lished. In  March,  1861,  he  became  pastor  of  Enon  Bap- 
tist Church,  Hollins,  where  he  remained  until  November, 
1864.  His  next  pastorate  was  at  what  is  now  known  as 
Bedford  City;  then  it  was  called  Liberty.  His  going 
to  the  county-seat  of  Bedford  was  an  epoch  for  him,  for 
in  this  county  the  rest  of  his  life,  some  thirty  years,  was 
to  be  spent,  and  here  he  died  and  was  buried.  He  was 
pastor  of  the  Liberty  Church  some  eight  years,  and  then 
began  his  work  as  a  country  pastor.  The  churches  which 

83 


84  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

he  served  were  Mt.  Olivet,  Flint  Hill,  Diamond  Hill, 
Beaver  Dam,  Shady  Grove,  Mt.  Zion,  Walnut  Grove, 
New  Prospect,  Suck  Spring,  Mt.  Hermon,  Hunting 
Creek,  Pleasant  View,  Beulah,  Flat  Creek,  and  Quakers. 
The  reader,  remembering  that  usually  the  Virginia  Bap- 
tist country  pastor  has  four  churches,  will  understand 
the  better  this  long  list  of  names;  he  will  also  see  with 
the  mind's  eye  this  man  of  God  going  long  distances  to 
his  appointments  over  the  red  Bedford  roads,  which  are 
often  muddy  in  winter  and  dusty  in  summer. 

Mr.  Davis  was  fond  of  a  horse,  aimed  to  have  a  good 
one,  and  then  believed  in  going  at  a  good  speed.  When 
he  and  J.  R.  Harrison  were  associated  as  fellow-pastors 
they  named  their  horses  respectively  "John  Bunyan"  and 
"John  the  Baptist."  During  a  part  of  his  life  in  Bed- 
ford, when  he  was  missionary  of  the  State  Mission 
Board,  his  field  was  wide  and  his  labors  abundant.  The 
State  Mission  Report  for  1872  shows  that  he  had  that 
year  more  conversions  in  meetings  held  with  pastors  than 
any  other  missionary.  The  report  says :  "Brother  Jas. 
A.  Davis  has  been  laboriously  and  successfully  employed 
in  the  Strawberry  Association.  He  baptized  80  converts 
and  held  meetings  with  pastors  in  which  there  were  over 
200  conversions."  The  following  year  the  State  Mission 
Report  showed  that  he  baptized  42  converts  and  aided 
pastors  in  meetings  in  which  there  were  97  conversions. 
On  one  occasion  he  was  urged  to  hold  a  meeting  in  a 
union  Sunday  school  which  was  rather  out  of  his  terri- 
tory. He  consented  to  go  provided  that  the  two  brethren 
urging  him  to  come  should  make  three  lists  of  the  uncon- 
verted people  in  the  neighborhood  and  covenant  with 
him  to  pray  three  times  every  day,  until  the  meeting 
began,  for  each  of  these  persons.  This  was  done,  and  a 
great  meeting  followed,  resulting  in  the  organization  of 
a  church  and  finally  the  formation  of  a  new  field  and  the 
building  of  a  parsonage. 


JAMES  ALLISON  DAVIS  85 

Mr.  Davis  exerted  a  strong  influence  for  good  in  the 
Strawberry  Association.  He  was  a  man  of  piety  and 
great  missionary  zeal.  Once  he  was  driving  along  not 
far  from  the  towering  Flat  Top  Mountain.  His  com- 
panion was  the  young  pastor  he  was  helping  in  a  meeting. 
The  meeting  had  not  been  successful.  He  proposed  that 
they  should  tie  the  horse  and  enter  the  woods  for  a  season 
of  secret  prayer  for  the  meeting,  each  one  going  in  a 
different  direction.  He  brought  the  new  leaven  of  mis- 
sions and  benevolence  into  practical  effect  in  the  Straw- 
berry. Prof.  H.  H.  Harris  attributed  mainly  to  him 
the  transformation  in  those  vital  matters  that  came  to 
pass  at  this  period  in  this  Association.  Dr.  C.  A.  Board, 
for  years  the  clerk  of  the  body,  gave  the  same  testimony. 
"His  great  personality,  gentleness,  zeal,  and  persistent 
effort,  with  tact  and  power  of  organization,  qualified  him 
to  lead/' 

Rev.  W.  S.  Royall,  who  was  for  many  years  pastor  of 
the  Bedford  City  Church,  says:  "Brother  Davis  was  an 
efficient  leader.  ...  In  the  pulpit  he  was  strong, 
and  his  sermons  were  thoroughly  studied  and  well  pre- 
pared. His  handsome  face,  commanding  figure,  incor- 
ruptible life,  and  earnest  delivery  added  great  influence 
and  force  to  his  words.  ...  As  pastor  he  loved  his 
people,  visited  them  faithfully,  and  manifested  deepest 
sympathy  and  gentleness.  .  .  .  The  people  believed 
in  him,  followed  him,  and  loved  him."  Not  only  was  he 
successful  in  evangelistic  preaching  himself,  but  he  called 
to  his  aid  for  protracted-meeting  work  in  his  own 
churches,  strong  and  zealous  men.  In  a  letter  written  to 
the  Herald,  November  8,  1888,  he  tells  how  R.  D.  Hay- 
more  helped  him  in  a  meeting  at  Mt.  Olivet,  C.  G.  Jones 
in  one  at  Mt.  Zion,  and  that  meetings  were  planned  for 
Walnut  Grove  and  New  Prospect,  J.  R.  Harrison  being 
the  preacher  at  the  former  and  J.  M.  Luck  at  the  latter 
church. 


86  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

During  the  years  after  the  War  he  was  called  on  very 
often  to  marry  colored  couples.  They  did  not  hesitate 
to  make  him  ride  long  distances  for  these  functions,  yet 
never  paid  him  anything  for  his  services.  It  became  an 
imposition  and  a  nuisance,  from  which  he  finally  secured 
relief  by  demanding  pay  before  he  started.  He  was 
twice  married,  first,  on  March  4,  1861,  to  Miss  Martha 
E.  Hamilton,  and,  after  having  been  a  widower  several 
years,  the  second  time  to  Miss  Susan  A.  Jeffries,  of  Cul- 
peper.  His  wife,  four  sons,  and  five  daughters  survived 
him.  Two  of  his  daughters  married  Baptist  preachers, 
namely,  Rev.  J.  W.  Wildman,  of  Yancey  Mills,  Va.,  and 
Rev.  J.  M.  Street,  of  Cumberland,  Va.  Robert  Hamilton, 
Mary  Alice  (Mrs.  Wildman),  William  Cute,  and  Laura 
A.  were  the  children  of  the  first  wife.  James  Ambrose, 
Nannie  Moore,  Richard  Tyree,  and  Sarah  Judson  (Mrs. 
Street)  were  the  children  of  the  second  wife.  During  his 
last  illness,  which  was  a  lingering  one,  his  children  came 
from  long  distances  to  bestow  upon  him  the  love  and  care 
of  which  he  was  so  worthy.  He  faced  death,  which  came 
to  him  in  Bedford  City,  October  8,  1903,  "with  tranquil 
faith  and  the  courage  of  a  conqueror."  His  body  rests 
in  the  Longwood  Cemetery,  Bedford  City,  not  far  from 
the  grave  of  "Father"  Wm.  Harris. 


\\  VCLIFFE  YANCEY  ABRAHAM 

1850-1903 

About  a  mile  from  Goshen  Bridge,  Va.,  where  a 
furnace  village  now  stands,  there  was  for  many  years 
a  home  whose  hospitable  doors  swung  open  to  scores, 
perhaps  hundreds,  of  guests.  This  was  the  home  of  Mr. 
John  W.  Abraham.  With  his  wife,  he  moved  from 
Buckingham  County  to  Rockbridge  when  his  only  child, 
Wycliffe,  who  was  born  June  8,  1850,  was  very  young. 
So  the  boy  grew  up  in  the  Goshen  neighborhood,  and 
when  still  quite  a  youth  accepted  Christ  and  was  baptized 
by  the  pastor,  Rev.  J.  Wm.  Jones,  into  the  fellowship  of 
the  Goshen  Bridge  Baptist  Church.  The  sunny  enthusi- 
asm of  his  mother  and  the  sterling  worth  of  his  father 
were  indeed  precious  assets  for  the  son.  From  such 
gracious  home  influences  he  passed  on  his  way  toward 
his  life  work.  His  academy  work  was  done  in  Stauntori, 
where  he  boarded  for  a  season  in  the  home  of  Rev.  Geo. 
Boardman  Taylor.  He  was  at  Richmond  College  during 
the  sessions  of  1869-70  and  1870-71,  and  then  at  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary.  His  ordination 
took  place  at  the  Goshen  Bridge  Church,  March  30,  1879. 
He  served,  until  a  severe  throat  trouble  and  deafness 
made  further  public  ministerial  work  impossible,  these 
churches:  Deerfield,  Craigsville,  Fincastle,  New  Bethel. 
Pleasant  Hill,  and  Greenville.  Upon  retiring  from  the 
active  ministry,  he  lived  first  in  Columbia,  S.  C,  and  then 
in  Richmond,  Va.  In  both  of  these  cities  he  was  an 
earnest  and  effective  Christian  worker.  In  the  former 
city  he  organized  a  Sunday  school  which  grew  into  the 
Second  Church ;  he  preached  regularly  for  this  flock, 

87 


88  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

doing  also  pastoral  work,  until  they  were  strong  to  call 
an  undershepherd.  In  Richmond  his  membership  was 
first  at  Grace  Street  and  then  at  Immanuel.  He  was 
married  twice.  His  first  wife,  who  was  Miss  Annie  H. 
Broadus,  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus, 
died  while  he  was  living  in  Columbia,  leaving  a  son  and 
a  daughter.  His  second  wife,  who  was  Miss  Lelia 
Christian,  daughter  of  Charles  Christian,  Esq.,  of  Buck- 
ingham County,  survived  him. 

His  death  was  sudden.  He  attended  the  session  of  the 
General  Association  of  1903  in  Staunton,  and  on  Mon- 
day, November  16th,  before  the  body  had  adjourned, 
returned  to  Richmond.  On  the  street  car,  as  he  was 
going  from  the  station  to  his  home,  he  was  taken  ill.  The 
car  was  stopped  and  he  was  carried  to  a  neighboring  drug 
store,  but  in  a  few  moments  he  was  dead.  Two  days 
later,  on  November  18,  1903,  his  body  was  laid  to  rest 
in  the  cemetery  in  Staunton.  Many  will  long  remember 
his  kindly  spirit  and  great  zeal  for  God's  work.  This 
sketch  is  based  mainly  on  the  obituary,  in  the  Minutes  of 
the  General  Association,  prepared  by  Rev.  Dr.  W.  J. 
Shipman. 


NATHAN  M.  MUNDEN 

1833-1903 

In  Princess  Anne  County,  Virginia,  and  the  adjoining 
counties,  the  career  of  Nathan  M.  Munden  was  run.  He 
was  a  prophet  not  without  honor  in  his  own  country.  In 
Princess  Anne  County,  that  lies  beside  the  sounding  sea, 
on  August  13,  1833,  he  first  saw  the  light,  and  at  Oak 
Grove  Baptist  Church,  in  the  same  county,  he  was  bap- 
tized in  1855,  while  two  years  later  he  became  the  clerk 
of  this  body.  That  those  who  were  nearest  to  him,  and 
so,  doubtless,  knew  him  best,  had  a  high  regard  for  his 
character  and  ability,  is  plain,  since  this  same  church,  in 
May,  1859,  licensed  him  to  preach,  and  the  following 
year,  in  November,  had  secured  his  services  as  their 
pastor.  His  ordination  having  taken  place  in  January, 
1861,  the  presbytery  consisting  of  Elders  J.  P.  Ewell, 
H.  J.  Chandler,  H.  S.  Banks,  and  M.  R.  Watkinson,  he 
was  pastor,  though  on  account  of  the  War  not  without 
interruptions,  of  Oak  Grove  until  1866.  Again  in  1872 
he  became  the  shepherd  of  this  flock,  ministering  to  them 
regularly  until  1884,  when  he  resigned  and  moved  to 
Norfolk  County.  Here  he  labored  faithfully  until  fail- 
ing health  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  give  up  preach- 
ing. More  than  one  long  pastorate  is  evidence  of  his 
sterling  character  and  worth.  He  was  pastor  of  Black 
Water  for  twenty-two  and  of  Pleasant  Grove  for  twenty- 
nine  years.  Lake  Drummond  was  under  his  care  for  five 
years,  and  the  First  Church  (Norfolk),  St.  John's,  and 
Deep  Creek  for  a  shorter  time.  "His  special  fondness 
for  souls,  bright  intellect,  tenacious  memory,  gift  of 
speech,  genuine  godliness,  and  genial  disposition  won  for 

89 


90  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

him  at  once  a  place  in  the  hearts  of  all  he  met."  He  was 
never  a  strong  man  physically,  and  finally  a  long  but 
patient  sufferer.  He  grew  old  gracefully,  becoming 
more  tender  as  the  end  drew  near.  The  night  of  Novem- 
ber 19,  1903,  he  fell  on  sleep,  having  reached  his  three- 
score years  and  ten.  His  wife,  who,  for  forty-five  years, 
had  been  his  faithful  companion  and  helpmeet,  still  sur- 
vives him.  His  pastor,  whose  obituary  has  furnished 
the  facts  for  this  sketch,  conducted  the  funeral  service, 
assisted  by  Rev.  N.  B.  Foushee,  of  the  Methodist  Church. 
The  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  Oak  Grove  Cemetery. 


ROBERT  RHODAM  LUNSFORD 

1828-1903 

Rhodam  Lunsford,  who  was  of  English  descent,  and 
whose  ancestors  settled  in  the  Northern  Neck  of  Vir- 
ginia, was  a  soldier  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  His  son, 
Merriman  Lunsford,  was  a  Baptist  preacher  and  one  of 
the  pioneer  Baptist  preachers  in  Piedmont  Virginia,  to 
which  section  of  the  State  he  moved  when  he  was  a 
young  man,  settling  in  Bedford  County.  Here  he  was 
pastor,  for  forty  years,  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Church,  and 
for  many  years  of  the  Glade  Creek  Church.  He  married 
Miss  Susan  Mills,  and  of  this  union  three  children 
were  born,  the  youngest  child  and  the  only  son  being 
Robert  Rhodam  Lunsford,  who  was  born  February 
29,  1828.  Since  both  the  Mills  and  Lunsford  families 
were  remarkable  for  their  strong  piety  and  religious 
convictions,  it  is  not  surprising  that  young  Luns ford's 
early  training  was  under  the  best  religious  influences. 
His  family  was  probably  connected  with  that  of  Elder 
Lewis  Lunsford,  who  was  such  a  power  in  the  early 
history  of  Virginia  Baptists.  When  the  boy  was  about 
four  years  old  his  father  moved  to  the  southern  part 
of  Botetourt  County,  where  he  purchased  a  farm  on 
Goose  Creek.  Here  father  and  son  spent  the  remainder 
of  their  days.  Since  his  father's  means  were  limited 
and  the  opportunities  for  a  college  education  rarer  than 
to-day,  the  young  man  never  saw  the  halls  of  a  college, 
but  he  was  a  great  student,  having  the  faculty  of  master- 
ing whatever  he  undertook.  So  his  education  was  by  no 
means  limited  to  the  training  of  the  common  schools  of 
his  day.  In  after  years  he  taught  school,  with  many 
grown  men  as  pupils;  thus  his  income  and  his  influence 

91 


92  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

were  enlarged.  On  December  17,  1849,  he  was  married 
to  Sarah  Ann  Lemon,  and  soon  afterwards  both  husband 
and  wife  united  with  Glade  Creek  Baptist  Church  and 
were  buried  with  Christ  in  baptism,  the  ceremony  being 
performed  by  Elder  A.  B.  Brown.  For  this  distin- 
guished preacher  Mr.  Lunsford  always  had  the  highest 
esteem  and  affection,  treasuring  in  his  library  the  "Life 
and  Writings  of  Dr.  A.  B.  Brown,"  written  by  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Wm.  E.  Hatcher. 

Soon  after  his  union  with  the  church  he  began  to 
exercise  his  gifts,  and,  being  encouraged  by  his  brethren, 
was  licensed  to  preach.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father, 
on  June  17,  1862,  the  Glade  Creek  Church  turned  to  him 
to  be  their  pastor,  and,  on  August  1,  sent  a  request  to 
the  Strawberry  Association,  then  in  session  at  the 
Beaver  Dam  Church,  Bedford  County,  asking  for  a  pres- 
bytery to  consider  the  propriety  of  ordaining  him  whom 
they  had  already  licensed.  The  request  was  granted,  and 
Elders  William  Harris,  J.  R.  Harrison,  G.  W.  Leftwich, 
D.  Staley,  Pleasant  Brown,  N.  Leslie,  Alexander  Eubank, 
and  F.  N.  Sanderson  were  appointed  as  the  presbytery, 
with  instructions  to  "visit  the  church,  examine  into  the 
propriety  of  ordaining  Brother  Lunsford,  and  to  ordain 
him  to  the  gospel  ministry  if  deemed  expedient."  A  few 
weeks  later  the  ordination  took  place,  and  in  the  fall  of 
1862  he  became  pastor  of  Glade  Creek,  in  which  relation- 
ship he  continued  until  his  death.  During  this  long 
period  he  served  various  other  churches  in  that  general 
section  of  the  country,  Blue  Ridge  and  Mountain  View 
(in  the  Strawberry)  and  Cove  Alum  and  Cave  Rock  (in 
the  Valley)  being  among  the  number.  Though  he 
accepted  such  salaries  as  the  churches  gave  him,  such 
compensation  was  with  him  a  secondary  matter,  and  he 
depended  upon  his  farm,  which  he  worked  with  his  own 
hands,  for  his  livelihood.  He  was  most  hospitable  in  his 


ROBERT  RHODAM  LUNSFORD  93 

nature,  and  the  guest  was  always  welcome  in  his  home. 
Since  his  house  was  on  one  of  the  leading  highways  of 
the  State,  many  a  passing  preacher  of  his  own  and  of 
other  denominations  found  rest  and  comfort  beneath  his 
roof.  He  believed  in  foot-washing  as  a  church  ordi- 
nance, and  his  Glade  Creek  Church  kept  up  this  practice 
to  the  end  of  his  life,  though  every  other  church  in  his 
Association  had  given  it  up.  He  wrote  a  pamphlet  on 
this  subject  which  was  widely  circulated. 

About  a  year  before  his  death  his  health  failed,  but, 
securing  brethren  as  supplies,  he  continued  as  pastor  of 
his  Glade  Creek  flock  to  the  end.  Two  weeks  after  a 
stroke  of  paralysis,  on  August  6,  1903,  while  the  Straw- 
berry Association  that  he  loved  so  well  and  had  attended 
so  regularly  was  in  session  and  praying  for  him,  he 
passed  to  his  reward.  His  wife  survived  him,  and,  on 
July  12,  1907,  followed  him  to  rest.  His  children  are 
Paulina  Frances  (Mrs.  Mark  A.  Calhoun),  Marshall 
Taylor  Lunsford,  Mary  Alice  (Mrs.  Jacob  A.  Zimmer- 
man), Christley  Merriman  Lunsford,  and  Griffin  Gabriel 
Lunsford. 


JAMES  FRANKLIN  MAIDEN 

1823-1903 

The  story  of  a  man,  who,  in  one  year,  delivered  322 
sermons,  baptized  47  persons,  had  3  meeting-houses  in 
process  of  erection,  and  preached  at  20  points,  could 
but  be  of  interest  if  fully  known.  Unfortunately,  the  life 
of  James  Franklin  Maiden,  who,  in  1880,  had  the  fore- 
going figures  in  his  report  to  the  State  Mission  Board, 
is  not  before  us  in  detail.  Evidently  he  was  a  man  of 
energy  and  force.  Augusta  County,  the  county  that  gave 
Woodrow  Wilson  to  the  world,  was,  on  February  21, 
1823,  Mr.  Maiden's  birthplace.  The  family  moved  (in 
just  what  year  is  not  known)  to  Botetourt  County, 
settling  near  Fincastle,  the  county-seat.  It  was  at  this 
time  and  place  that  he  had  his  early  religious  impressions. 
"He  determined  to  pray  that  he  might  become  better,  and 
to  be  a  secret  Christian.  He  grew  worse  instead  of 
better/'  The  conversion  of  his  brothers,  John  and 
Samuel,  and  their  baptism,  and  his  mother's,  into  the 
fellowship  of  the  Zion's  Hill  Baptist  Church,  brought  to 
him  deep  conviction,  and  he  was  certain  that  he  was  born 
to  be  lost.  A  conference  between  his  mother  and  Pastor 
L.  P.  Fellers,  which  led  to  their  making  a  covenant  to 
pray  for  the  youth's  conversion,  was  overheard  by  him. 
He  was  persuaded  that  their  prayers  would  be  in  vain, 
being  sure  that  he  was  doomed.  A  certain  summer  day 
he  went  to  a  thicket  of  pines  to  pray  and  to  die,  but  "he 
that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it" — he  came  out  of  the 
woods  rejoicing  in  the  Lord.  At  the  time  of  his  union 
with  Zion's  Hill  Church  he  felt  that  it  was  his  duty  to 
preach,  but  his  limited  education  was  an  obstacle,  so 

94 


JAMES  FRANKLIN  MAIDEN  95 

years  elapsed  before  he  finally  entered  the  ministry. 
When  his  parents  made  a  second  move,  this  time  to 
Washington  County,  he  went  with  them,  and  soon  after 
this,  in  1845,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Ann  Button, 
of  Cedarville.  At  the  time  of  their  marriage  she  was  a 
Lutheran,  but  before  long  she  became  a  Baptist.  She 
was  the  mother  of  ten  children,  of  whom  six  survived 
their  parents.  This  home  became  a  home  for  preachers, 
and  their  influence  may  have  led  their  host  to  begin  hold- 
ing, in  his  own  home  and  elsewhere  in  the  community, 
cottage  prayer-meetings.  He  was  no  little  disturbed 
that  the  other  brethren  had  more  freedom  in  prayer  than 
he  did,  but  he  persevered  until  he  was  counted  very  able 
in  prayer.  In  1852  he  moved  to  Smyth  County,  where, 
in  1855,  he  bought  the  house  in  which  he  afterwards  died. 
He  was  evidently  increasingly  interested  in  religious 
work,  for  he  was  one  of  the  constituent  members  of  the 
South  Fork  Church  (Lebanon  Association),  and  on 
April  15,  1873,  was  licensed  to  preach.  Just  a  week 
later,  at  Blankenbeckler's  Schoolhouse,  the  people  heard 
his  first  sermon,  and,  having  supplied  the  following 
winter  at  Maiden's  Spring  (now  Mountain  View),  in 
Washington  County,  at  the  request  of  this  church  he  was 
ordained  at  South  Fork,  June  16,  1872.  During  the 
winter  of  1873,  in  meetings  that  he  held  at  Friendship, 
Middle  Fork,  Gollehon's  Schoolhouse,  and  South  Fork, 
154  persons  were  converted,  of  whom  131  were  baptized 
into  the  fellowship  of  churches.  More  than  once  he  was 
a  missionary  of  the  State  Mission  Board,  and  when  he 
filled  this  position  in  1877  his  salary  was,  from  the 
Board,  $75,  and  from  the  Association,  $100.  As  a 
result  of  his  work  at  Long  Hollow  (Smyth  County), 
Beaver  Creek  (now  Oak  Grove)  Church  soon  came  into 
being.  He  bore  an  important  part  in  the  organization  of 
four  other  churches,  namely.  Cedar  Bluff  and  Riverside, 


96  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

both  in  the  Lebanon,  and  State  Line  and  Laurel  in  the 
New  River  Association.  In  the  course  of  his  ministry 
he  was  pastor  of  the  following  churches,  besides  those 
already  named :  Sugar  Grove,  Vision,  South  Side,  Gren- 
field,  in  the  Lebanon,  and  Liberty  Hill,  Galena,  and 
Baptist  Union,  in  the  New  River.  He  was  married  a 
second  time,  on  October  8,  1888,  the  bride  on  this  occa- 
sion being  Miss  Sarah  Etta  Slemp,  who,  with  five  sons 
and  a  daughter,  survived  him.  His  death,  caused  by 
pneumonia,  occurred  on  South  Fork,  Smyth  County, 
Virginia,  November  24,  1903.  His  body  was  committed 
to  the  earth  in  the  graveyard  of  Blankenbeckler's  School- 
house,  where  his  first  sermon  was  preached.  This  sketch 
is  based,  in  the  main,  on  the  obituary,  in  the  Minutes  of 
the  General  Association,  by  Rev.  C.  T.  Tavlor. 


THERON  WALLACE  NEWMAN 

1832-1903 

While  his  father  was  a  Methodist  minister,  Theron 
Wallace  Newman,  who  was  born  July  25,  1832,  became 
a  Baptist  and  a  Baptist  minister.  He  was  converted 
about  the  year  1853  and  baptized  by  the  Rev.  Thaddeus 
Herndon  into  the  fellowship  of  Antioch  Church.  Three 
years  before  this  he  had  been  married  to  Miss  Eugenia 
E.  Newman;  this  union  was  followed  by  fifty-three 
years  of  happy  wedded  life.  After  his  ordination,  in 
1858,  for  some  years  he  preached  and  traveled  as  an 
evangelist,  his  field  of  labor  being  mainly  the  Potomac 
Association.  His  life  as  pastor  and  preacher,  for  some 
forty-five  years,  was  given  to  the  Association.  During 
this  period  he  served  the  following  churches  for  longer 
or  shorter  seasons :  Liberty,  Grove,  Oakland,  Zoar,  Rock 
Hill,  Falmouth,  New  Hope,  Richland,  Antioch,  Mt. 
Carmel,  Stafford's  Store,  Bealeton.  His  pastorate  at  the 
Grove  extended  from  April,  1875,  to  1891.  During  this 
time  he  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  this  church  157 
persons,  and  large  congregations  attended  upon  his 
preaching.  This  church,  the  Grove,  has  an  interesting 
history.  It  was  organized  in  1811.  Back  in  the 
eighteenth  century  there  was  a  rich  old  bachelor,  named 
Thomas  Skinner,  who  turned  his  house  into  a  meeting- 
house and  built  near  it  a  smaller  dwelling,  where  he 
lived ;  he  planted  a  row  of  sycamore  trees  and  a  grove 
of  apple  trees,  and,  at  his  death,  though  not  a  Baptist, 
willed  this  property  to  the  Baptist  Church  that  was  yet 
to  be  born ;  this  is  where  the  Grove  Church  now  stands. 
Mr.  Skinner's  interest  in  the  Baptists  was  from  what  he 

97 


98  VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

saw  of  a  young  husband  and  wife,  who,  in  the  face  of 
bitter  opposition,  became  Baptists.  In  his  day  books 
were  scarce,  so  Mr.  Skinner  went  to  London  and  bought 
a  library  for  the  use  of  the  pastor  of  the  future  Grove 
Church. 

Mr.  Newman  was  "a  most  successful  soul  winner,  and 
lie  probably  held  more  protracted  meetings  than  any 
other  pastor"  in  his  association.  "He  was  faithful  and 
untiring  in  his  efforts  to  build  up  the  churches  under  his 
care.  His  salary  was,  for  a  man  of  his  ability,  always 
small,  but  he  toiled  on  without  complaining,  content  if 
God  was  pleased  and  souls  saved."  His  death  occurred 
at  the  home  of  his  son-in-law,  Mr.  Theron  Newman,  in 
Washington,  on  Sunday,  December  6,  1903.  He  had 
filled  his  appointment  at  the  Herndon  Church,  Fairfax 
County,  on  the  fifth  Sunday  in  November,  and  was  on 
his  way  home  when  he  was  smitten  down  at  the  home  of 
his  son-in-law.  His  wife  and  his  son,  Eddie,  and  his 
daughter,  Lizzie,  were  with  him  at  his  death.  This 
sketch  is  based,  in  the  main,  on  the  obituary,  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  General  Association,  by  Rev.  C.  W. 
Brooks,  and  on  the  sermon,  also  by  Mr.  Brooks,  preached 
at  the  centennial  of  Grove  Church. 


HENRY  MCDONALD 

1832-1904 

County  Antrim  lies  in  the  north  of  Ireland.  It  is  in 
the  province  of  Ulster,  and  is  "one  of  the  most  decidedly 
Protestant  counties  in  Ireland/'  yet  in  1871  over  one- 
third  of  the  population  was  Roman  Catholic.  This 
county  is  famous  for  its  Giant's  Causeway,  and  for 
Lough  Neagh,  which  is  the  fourth  largest  lake  in  Europe. 
In  this  county,  on  January  3,  1832,  Henry  McDonald 
was  born,  his  parents  and  ancestors  all  belonging  to  the 
Catholic  Church.  "He  was  educated  in  the  national 
schools  of  Ireland,  and  afterwards  passed  through  the 
regular  course  of  the  Normal  School,  Dublin."  In  1848 
Europe  was  moved  by  the  revolutionary  spirit  and  Ire- 
land felt  this  throb.  In  this  year  young  McDonald  "left 
his  native  country  in  consequence  of  the  failure  of  the 
patriots  to  throw  from  them  the  yoke  of  British  oppres- 
sion." He  took  passage  on  a  vessel  sailing  for  New 
Orleans.  He  reached  this  city  without  money  and  with- 
out friends,  and  for  some  days  worked  at  the  wharves 
helping  to  load  ships.  The  young  man  attracted  the 
attention  of  a  Kentucky  planter,  and  upon  his  invitation 
accompanied  him  to  his  home.  It  is  interesting  to  notice 
that  the  next  time  McDonald  saw  New  Orleans  was  in 
1877  when  he  came  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
to  preach  the  introductory  sermon  before  that  body. 

Upon  reaching  Kentucky  he  taught  school  for  some 
time  in  Green  County  and  then  studied  law  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  "During  his  residence  in  Green 
County  he  made  a  thorough  examination  of  the  doctrines 
of  Roman  Catholicism,  the  result  of  which,  after  a  severe 

99 


100         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

mental  struggle,  was  the  rejection  of  the  whole  system 
as  unscriptural."  He  united  with  the  Baptists  and  was 
baptized  by  the  Rev.  George  Peck.  He  soon  felt  called 
to  preach,  and  was  ordained  in  May,  1854.  He  became 
pastor  of  the  Greensburg  Church  and  served  it  with 
marked  success  for  nearly  ten  years.  During  this  period 
he  was  pastor  also  of  Friendship  and  Campbellsville 
Churches,  in  Taylor  County,  and  of  Mt.  Gilead,  in  Greene 
County.  He  was  pastor  for  one  year  of  Waco  Church, 
in  Madison  County,  and  for  six  years  of  the  church  in 
Danville.  After  this  he  was  pastor,  from  1870  to  1877, 
of  the  Georgetown  Church,  and  professor  of  Theology  in 
the  Western  Baptist  Theological  Institute.  His  next 
work  was  as  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  George- 
town College.  Georgetown  and  Bethel  Colleges  gave  him 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  the  former  college 
the  degree  of  A.  M.  While  in  Kentucky  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Harding,  the  daughter  of  Aaron  Harding,  who 
for  several  years  represented  Kentucky  in  Congress. 
From  Georgetown  he  came  to  Virginia,  becoming  pastor 
of  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  Richmond.  Here  he 
remained  five  years,  taking  a  leading  part  in  the  work  of 
Virginia  Baptists  and  being  greatly  beloved  and  respected 
by  them.  While  in  Richmond  he  impressed  for  good 
many  of  the  students  at  Richmond  College.  One  testifies 
to  the  help  Dr.  McDonald  gave  him  when  he  stood  at  a 
spiritual  crisis  in  his  life,  and  another  declares  that  "Dr. 
McDonald's  capacity  for  loving  and  being  loved  was 
wonderful."  Dr.  W.  E.  Hatcher,  who  was  a  fellow- 
pastor  with  him  in  Richmond,  and  a  lifelong  friend, 
says :  "McDonald  was  made  of  the  finest  material,  com- 
mon in  nothing,  noble  in  all.  He  had  a  genius  for  friend- 
ship, and  was  a  friend  never  doubted,  whose  varying 
moods  woke  no  suspicions,  and  whose  soul  clung  with  a 
love  never  changing."  The  blended  humor  and  pathos 


HENRY  MCDONALD  101 

of  his  Irish  nature  helped  to  make  him  an  interesting  and 
magnetic  figure,  whether  he  was  seen  in  the  pulpit  or  in 
the  social  circle.  Rev.  J.  E.  Hutson,  who  helped  him  in 
a  meeting  at  the  Second  Church,  declared  that  it  was  dur- 
ing this  meeting  that  he  discovered  the  nobility  of  the 
man,  and  then  said :  "In  him  were  blended  the  modera- 
tion of  Melanchthon  and  the  intensity  of  Luther.  .  .  . 
No  doubt  his  modesty  sometimes  barred  him  from  that 
public  recognition  to  which  his  qualities  of  head  and 
heart  alike  entitled  him.  Not  infrequently  his  humility 
deprived  him  of  the  honor  which  his  private  suggestion, 
in  conference  or  convention,  brought  to  him  who  articu- 
lated the  hint  and  to  whom,  in  consequence,  the  wisdom 
of  the  measure  was  attributed.  He  could  weep  over  the 
grievances  of  a  child  without  detracting  from  his  man- 
hood, as  he  could  rebuke  the  sins  of  a  dignitary  of  the 
church  or  State  without  that  assumption  which  oftener 
offends  than  leads  to  amendment.  But  it  was  as  a 
preacher  of  the  everlasting,  old-fashioned  gospel  that  he 
made  his  highest  and  most  enduring  record."  In  1879 
Dr.  McDonald  delivered  before  the  Virginia  Baptist 
Historical  Society  an  address  on  "The  Relation  of  the 
Anabaptists  to  the  German  Peasant  War  in  the  Sixteenth 
Century"  ;  at  the  same  meeting  he  was  made  an  honorary 
member  of  the  Society. 

From  1882  to  1900  he  was  pastor  of  the  Second  Bap- 
tist Church,  Atlanta,  Ga.  During  this  period  he  was 
President  of  the  Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention.  And  among  other  offices  of  impor- 
tance that  he  held  in  the  denomination  was  that  of 
Trustee  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary. 
He  was  greatly  beloved  far  and  wide,  and  was  often 
referred  to  as  the  "beloved  John"  of  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist ministry. 


102         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

In  the  early  part  of  1904  he  suffered  a  stroke  oi 
paralysis,  and  on  Tuesday,  March  22d,  at  11  :15  A.  M.,  he 
passed  away.  The  funeral  service  in  Atlanta  was  con- 
ducted by  Dr.  John  E.  White,  Dr.  W.  W.  Landrum,  and 
Dr.  Carter  Helm  Jones,  while  the  exercises  at  George- 
town, Ky.,  where  the  body  was  laid  to  rest,  were  in 
charge  of  Dr.  E.  B.  Pollard  and  Rev.  T.  J.  Stevenson. 
His  children  are  Aaron  and  Robert  and  Mrs.  M.  M. 
Welch,  Mrs.  M.  L.  Brittain,  and  Mrs.  B.  T.  Crump. 


ERNEST  THOMAS  GREGORY 
1869-1904 

Ernest  Thomas  Gregory  was  born,  and  did  his  life 
work,  in  Southside  Virginia.  He  was  born  in  Mecklen- 
burg County,  March  20,  1869.  He  accepted  Christ  in 
early  life,  and,  having  decided  to  preach,  prepared  for 
this  work,  first  at  the  Southside  Academy,  Chase  City, 
then,  during  the  sessions  of  1890-91,  1891-92  and  1895- 
96,  at  Richmond  College,  and  finally  at  the  Southern 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Louisville,  Ky.  He  was 
called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  New  Hope  Church,  where 
he  was  a  member,  and  his  ordination  took  place  Novem- 
ber 7,  1900.  After  New  Hope  (Concord  Association) 
and  Mt  Tirzah  (Appomattox  Association),  his  churches 
were  Halifax,  Dan  River,  and  Hunting  Creek,  all  in  the 
Dan  River  Association.  In  February,  1904,  he  was 
stricken  with  la  grippe,  brought  on,  probably,  by  his  being 
exposed  to  the  weather  in  going  to  his  appointments. 
He  came  home  on  the  fourth  Sabbath  in  February  quite 
ill.  He  made  a  brave  fight  for  life,  but  died  at  Houston, 
April  9,  1904.  He  had  never  been  strong  physically,  but 
his  mind  was  vigorous,  and  his  heart  ever  beat  in  sym- 
pathy with  men.  "As  a  preacher  he  was  earnest,  prac- 
tical, scriptural,  and  evangelistic.  .  .  .  His  minis- 
try, though  brief,  was  owned  of  God  in  the  conversion  of 
many  and  the  upbuilding  of  active  and  spiritually  influ- 
ential churches."  His  wife,  who  was  Miss  Mary  Young, 
of  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  to  whom  he  was  married  July  3, 
1901,  survived  him.  The  facts  given  here  are  from  the 
obituary,  written  by  Rev.  F.  W.  Moore,  in  the  Minutes 
of  the  General  Association. 

103 


SAMUEL  CORNELIUS  CLOPTON 

1847-1904 

For  four  generations  the  name  of  Clopton  has  adorned 
the  roll  of  the  Baptist  ministry  of  Virginia.  There  was, 
first,  Elder  William  Clopton,  described  as  "a  faithful 
preacher  of  the  gospel."  Next  there  was  Elder  James 
Clopton,  who  was  born  in  New  Kent  County,  January  5, 
1782,  and  "who  principally  labored  in  New  Kent  and 
Charles  City  Counties,  but  frequently  made  tours  in  the 
lower  counties  between  York  and  James  Rivers,"  and  of 
whom  we  are  told  that  "in  all  the  region  between  Rich- 
mond and  Williamsburg  he  left  an  enduring  monument 
in  the  hearts  of  many,  to  the  praise  of  God's  grace." 
The  third  son  of  Elder  James  Clopton  was  Rev.  Samuel 
Cornelius  Clopton,  who  was  also  born  in  New  Kent 
County,  and  who  went  out  as  the  first  missionary  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  to  China.  He  sailed,  with 
his  wife,  who  was  Miss  Keziah  Turpin,  a  daughter  of 
Rev.  Miles  Turpin,  with  Rev.  George  Pearcy  and  wife, 
on  the  Cahota,  June  22,  1846.  On  July  7,  1847,  he 
passed  away,  and  his  widow  and  only  son  returned  to 
their  native  land.  This  son,  born  in  China,  was  Samuel 
Cornelius  Clopton,  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  He  grew 
up,  under  the  watchful  care  of  his  noble  mother,  "an 
earnest,  self-reliant  youth,"  whom  "everybody  knew 
could  be  trusted."  In  the  ministry  he  is  the  son  of  Leigh 
Street  Baptist  Church,  being  licensed  by  this  body  to 
preach.  By  a  hard  struggle,  "toiling  at  his  books  in  the 
morning  and  at  night,  and  working  for  the  means  to 
send  himself  to  school  in  the  afternoons  and  on  Satur- 
days (when  other  boys  less  earnest  were  at  play),  he 

104 


SAMUEL  CORNELIUS  CLOPTON         105 

made  his  way  through  college  and  to  the  seminary,  and 
in  due  time  came  forth  a  graduate  of  whom  they  had 
just  cause  to  be  proud." 

On  February  16,  1874,  a  few  members  of  the  Grace 
Street  Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  started  a  mission  Sun- 
day school  in  a  little  storeroom  on  Clay  Street  west  of 
Graham.  The  work  prospered;  in  1876  a  chapel  was 
erected,  and  on  April  20,  1877,  a  church,  known  as  the 
Clay  Street  Baptist  Church,  was  organized  with  fifty-one 
members.  To  the  pastorate  of  the  young  church  Mr. 
Clopton  was  called.  For  some  fifteen  years,  until  July 
31,  1892,  he  continued  the  shepherd  of  this  flock. 
"Under  his  matchless  leadership  the  little  church  grew 
apace,  and  soon  became  conspicuous  for  her  zeal  and 
liberality,  for  wisely  and  well  had  he  laid  the  founda- 
tions, and  to  him  more  than  to  any  other  is  the  credit 
due  for  the  beautiful  superstructure,  the  Calvary  Baptist 
Church  of  to-day."  When  the  new  meeting-house  of  the 
Calvary  Church  was  dedicated,  on  December  17,  1893, 
Mr.  Clopton  preached  the  sermon.  Before  his  Richmond 
pastorate  closed  he  had  taken  rank  among  the  Baptist 
pastors  of  the  city  and  State  by  reason  of  his  zeal,  his 
sincerity,  his  piety,  and  his  genial  Christian  spirit.  Many 
incidents  might  be  given  to  show  how  earnest,  godly,  and 
kind  he  was.  Mrs.  John  Pollard,  who  was  a  member  of 
his  congregation,  and  deaf,  described  in  the  Herald,  after 
his  death,  how  it  was  his  custom  to  hand  her,  every  Sun- 
day morning,  the  notes  of  his  sermon,  that  she  might 
have  her  share  in  the  service.  "His  influence  with  young 
men  was  remarkable,  and  from  his  church  there  went 
forth,  inspired  by  his  example  and  counsel,  some  of  our 
brightest  and  best  pastors  of  to-day."  Nor  did  he  forget, 
in  his  work  in  Richmond,  the  far-away  land  of  his 
nativity,  for  "there  was  hardly  a  Chinaman  in  Richmond 
who  did  not  know  him  well,"  and  a  vear  or  so  after 


106         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Mr.  Clopton's  pastorate  closed  the  Chinese  class  of  the 
Sunday  school  presented  the  church  with  a  beautiful  pul- 
pit chair,  their  presentation  speech  being  made  in  English. 
He  was  a  faithful  helper  in  the  work  of  the  denomina- 
tion. For  fifteen  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board.  One  summer,  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
Mission  Board,  he  went  to  Bell  Spring,  in  Pulaski  County, 
and  helped  the  pastor  in  a  meeting  that  resulted  in  the 
addition,  by  baptism,  of  thirty-two  persons  to  the  church. 
He  often  wrote  for  the  Herald,  and  certainly  one  of  his 
articles,  namely,  that  on  the  question  whether  women 
should  speak  in  the  churches,  called  forth  many  writers, 
some  taking  sides  against  and  some  for  his  views. 

While  he  will  be  best  remembered  for  his  labors  at 
Clay  Street  (Calvary)  Church,  the  three  other  pastor- 
ates that  he  held,  after  leaving  Richmond,  were  not  with- 
out fruit.  From  Richmond  he  went  to  the  Parker 
Memorial  Church,,  Anniston,  Ala.,  and  from  there  to  the 
Fuller  Memorial  Church,  Baltimore.  From  Baltimore  he 
came  back  to  Virginia,  taking  charge  of  the  church  at 
Smithfield.  As  one  of  the  results  of  his  labors  in  this 
town  a  handsome  meeting-house  was  erected  and  dedi- 
cated. The  esteem  in  which  he  was  held  by  all  the 
denominations  in  Smithfield  was  proved  by  the  memorial 
service  that  took  place,  after  his  death,  in  the  Methodist 
Church  (besides  the  one  held  in  his  own  church),  when 
the  Methodist  pastor,  Rev.  W.  C.  Green,  presided,  and 
when  appropriate  resolutions  were  passed. 

On  Wednesday,  May  10,  1904,  he  came  to  Richmond 
on  his  way  to  Rappahannock  County,  where  he  expected 
to  seek  rest  and  renewed  health.  His  physicians,  how- 
ever, found  his  condition  more  serious  than  he  had  sup- 
posed, and  he  went  to  the  Retreat  for  the  Sick,  where, 
on  May  19th,  after  a  painful  illness,  he  died.  His  body 
was  buried  in  beautiful  Hollywood,  Richmond's  city  of 


SAMUEL  CORNELIUS  CLOPTON         107 

the  dead.  About  the  time  of  his  going  to  Alabama  to 
live  he  received  from  Richmond  College  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  was  married  to  Miss  Annie 
Jones,  of  Rappahannock  County;  she  and  two  children 
survived  him.  The  quotations  in  this  sketch  are  from 
the  obituary  prepared  for  the  Minutes  of  the  General 
Association  by  Mr.  R.  R.  Gwathmey;  Mr.  Gwathmey 
was  a  leader  in  the  establishment  of  the  Sunday  school 
from  which  Clay  Street  and  Calvary  grew  and  one  of  the 
church's  deacons. 


HENRY  PETTY 

1828-1904 

To  preach  the  gospel  for  forty- four  years  is  no  mean 
record.  This,  Rev.  Henry  Petty  did.  Besides,  he  added 
to  the  literature  of  his  denomination,  being  the  author  of 
three  stories  which  aimed  to  enforce  the  principles  and 
doctrines  of  Baptists.  The  first  of  these  stories,  "Lena 
Landon,"  appeared  in  book  form,  while  the  others, 
"Helen  Gray"  and  "The  Lightfoots,"  came  out  as  serials. 
The  Accomac  and  Roanoke  Associations  claimed  the 
larger  part  of  his  ministry,  but  immediately  after  his 
ordination,  in  1859,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Greenville 
Church  in  North  Carolina,  and  later  he  was  pastor  three 
other  times  in  the  Old  North  State,  twice  at  Warrenton, 
and  at  Greensboro.  Three  different  times  he  was  pastor 
on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia.  Here  he  served 
Lower  Northampton  and  Red  Bank,  organized  the 
church  at  Drummondtown  in  1871,  and  built  the 
meeting-house  at  Cheriton.  During  the  War  he  was 
pastor  of  the  Second  Church  of  Petersburg,  and,  in  1878, 
a  State  missionary  at  North  Danville.  For  twelve  years 
he  served  the  church  at  Chatham,  and  among  the  other 
churches  of  the  Roanoke  Association  to  which  he  was 
pastor  are  these :  Greenfield,  Sharon,  Chestnut  Level, 
Shockoe. 

He  was  born  in  Princess  Anne  County,  Virginia, 
November  14,  1828.  When  he  was  an  infant  his  father 
died,  and,  at  eight  years  of  age,  he  lost  his  mother.  She 
had  made  an  impression  on  him  that  he  never  outgrew. 
On  her  deathbed  she  told  him  that  she  wanted  him  to  be 
a  Christian  and  a  preacher.  Then  she  prayed  that  her 

108 


HENRY  PETTY  109 

wish  might  be  granted.  In  after  years  he  was  moved  to 
follow  her  precepts.  Thus  left,  at  a  tender  age,  an 
orphan,  he  developed  independence  of  spirit,  decision  of 
character  and  economy.  The  kind  home  of  his  uncle,  the 
Rev.  H.  H.  Banks,  now  became  his  home,  and  here  the 
influences  that  surrounded  him  were  of  the  best.  Early 
in  life  he  came  into  touch  with  the  Rev.  Thomas  Hume. 
Sr.,  who  took  great  interest  in  him  and  later  baptized 
him.  His  education  cost  him  a  struggle,  but  that  he  was 
more  than  victor  in  this  struggle,  a  struggle  that  involved 
teaching  school  and  perhaps  other  ways  of  turning  an 
honest  penny,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  was  an  author 
as  well  as  a  preacher.  Besides  writing  books,  as  already 
noted,  he  strayed,  not  infrequently,  with  his  pen  into  the 
field  of  poetry.  It  would  be  interesting  if  we  could  know 
all  that  took  place  at  two  meetings  at  two  country 
churches  when  Mr.  Petty  was  the  chief  figure.  Picture 
first  the  scene  at  St.  John's  Church  at  Princess  Anne 
Court  House  when  a  presbytery  composed  of  Elders 
H.  J.  Chandler,  J.  D.  Elwell,  and  H.  H.  Banks,  on 
February  27,  1859,  examined  and  set  apart  the  young 
man  to  the  gospel  ministry.  And  next  go,  in  imagination, 
to  Ebenezer  Meeting-House,  in  the  same  county,  and 
hear  this  young  man  preaching  his  first  sermon  from  the 
words:  'The  time  is  fulfilled  and  the  Kingdom  of  God 
is  at  hand ;  repent  ye  and  believe  in  the  gospel."  From 
this  day  forward  it  is  said  that  he  never  preached  an 
indifferent  sermon. 

On  February  1,  1882,  he  was  married  to  Mrs.  Mary 
Carter  Penick;  she,  with  one  daughter,  survived  him. 
Some  two  years  before  his  departure  he  lost  his  hearing, 
and  this  affliction  was  followed  by  other  bodily  ailments, 
but  he  bore  it  all  with  exemplary  patience.  He  passed 
away  at  Chatham,  Va.,  July,  16,  1904,  and  in  the  ceme- 
tery of  this  town  he  sleeps  his  last  sleep. 


JOHN  MAJOR  PERRY 

1835-1904 

While  not  a  native  of  Virginia,  Rev.  John  Major  Perry 
spent  some  forty-one  years  of  his  life  and  of  his  ministry 
in  this  State.  Frail  health  led  him  to  Virginia,  and  the 
climate  of  his  adopted  State  meant  a  long  extension  of 
his  service  in  the  Kingdom  of  God.  His  appearance  sug- 
gested that  he  was  not  a  strong  man  in  body;  his  face 
was  thin  and  his  figure  rather  gaunt;  he  resembled 
Abraham  Lincoln,  and  was  mistaken  for  this  famous 
man  more  than  once.  He  was  born  in  Montgomery 
County,  Pennsylvania,  January  5,  1835.  His  student 
days  were  spent  at  Lewisburg  University  (now  Bucknell 
University),  and  his  diploma  bears  the  date  of  July  27, 
1858.  The  churches  that  he  served  in  Pennsylvania 
were  Parkers  ford,  Conshohocken,  Philipsburg,  and 
Greenville.  He  was  married  March  1,  1862,  to  Miss 
Lida  Bush,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Andrew  Bush,  of  Chester 
County,  Pennsylvania,  and  of  this  union  six  children  were 
born.  It  was  in  1873  that  he  came  to  Virginia,  for  the 
reason  named  above,  and  settled  on  a  small  farm  near 
Wylliesburg,  Charlotte  County.  Since  there  was  no 
Baptist  Church  in  the  neighborhood,  he  organized  one  in 
1883  that  took  the  name  of  Wylliesburg,  having  in  1878 
organized  Friendship  Church  in  the  same  county.  These 
two  churches  he  served  for  over  twenty-five  years,  and 
before  his  ministry  closed  he  had  been  pastor  of  Antioch 
and  Tabernacle  Churches,  both  in  the  Concord  Associa- 
tion, as  was  also  Wylliesburg;  Friendship  is  in  the 
Appomattox.  Rev.  H.  T.  Williams  says:  "Brother 
Perry  was  an  unusually  able  preacher.  His  mind  was 

110 


JOHN  MAJOR  PERRY  111 

thoroughly  trained,  he  was  well  versed  in  the  Scriptures, 
and  he  preached  the  great  truths  of  the  gospel  in  sim- 
plicity and  with  loving  sympathy  for  all  his  hearers.  He 
was  so  modest  and  retiring  that  he  never  became  known 
to  the  brotherhood,  of  the  State  and  never  received  on 
earth  the  recognition  and  honor  that  his  character  and 
work  merited,  but  he  was  tenderly  loved  and  highly 
honored  by  those  who  knew  him  and  his  service,  and  when 
the  final  records  are  unrolled  he  will  be  exalted  in  the 
presence  of  the  King  and  the  saints.  .  .  .  He 
readily  adapted  himself  to  the  thought  and  customs  of 
the  South.  He  was  one  of  us,  loving  us  tenderly  and  was 
devotedly  loved  by  us."  Mrs.  Perry  died  in  1899,  and 
in  1901  he  was  married  to  Miss  Lizzie  Gregory,  a 
daughter  of  Mr.  J.  B.  Gregory,  of  Mecklenburg  County. 
Of  this  union  one  child,  a  girl,  was  born.  After  being 
ill  for  three  weeks  with  pneumonia,  Brother  Perry  passed 
away  July  22,  1904,  and  the  funeral  took  place  in  the 
Wylliesburg  Church  and  the  burial  in  the  cemetery  of 
this  church.  Besides  his  wife  and  the  daughter  of  the 
second  marriage,  the  following  children  survived  him : 
Mr.  E.  L.  Perry,  Rev.  W.  M.  Perry,  Mrs.  A.  C.  Davis, 
and  Mrs.  A.  H.  Moss. 


M.  A.  WILSON 

1839-1904 

Many  years  ago  there  came  to  the  home  of  a  Virginia 
pastor  a  visiting  preacher.  On  Sunday  night  the  visitor 
filled  the  pulpit.  When  the  time  for  retiring  came,  the 
pastor's  little  boy  followed  his  father  and  the  guest  to 
the  bedroom.  Before  the  hosts  left  the  room  their  guest 
had  begun  to  undress.  It  then  appeared  that  he  had 
preached  with  his  whole  back  a  mass  of  sores.  The  boy 
never  understood  exactly  what  was  the  matter  with  the 
visitor,  but  that  he  could  have  preached  when  in  such  a 
physical  condition  deeply  impressed  the  child.  The 
preacher  with  the  sore  back  was  Rev.  M.  A.  Wilson,  for 
thirty-eight  years  a  pioneer  Baptist  missionary  and 
church  builder  in  the  Valley  and  southwest  sections  of 
Virginia.  Mr.  Wilson  was  not  a  man  of  strong  physical 
make-up — his  face  suggested  this — and  once  the  State 
Mission  report  says  that  he  was  absent  from  his  work  on 
account  of  ill  health.  Yet  doubtless  he  had  what  might 
be  called  a  wiry  constitution,  and  in  his  "journey ings  oft" 
over  mountain  and  valley  his  hard  work  brought  the 
compensation  of  much  life  in  the  open  air. 

He  was  born  in  Rockbridge  County,  Virginia,  Febru- 
ary 6,  1839,  being  of  Scotch-Irish  ancestry.  His  early 
life  on  the  farm  offered  few  educational  opportunities, 
nor  did  his  later  life  give  him  much  chance  for  study. 
He  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the  Neriah  Bap- 
tist Church,  Rockbridge  County,  by  Elder  J.  C.  Richard- 
son, in  1865.  The  next  year,  at  Arnold's  Valley  Church, 
in  the  James  River  Valley,  he  was  ordained  and  preached 
his  first  sermon.  He  married  Miss  Elizabeth  J.  Taylor, 
who,  with  five  children  (Dr.  Frank  L.  Wilson,  Joseph  A. 
Wilson,  Mrs.  Emmons,  Mrs.  Ritz,  and  Mrs.  Jones),  sur- 
vived him. 

112 


M.  A.  WILSON  11. > 

Except  for  one  brief  period,  Mr.  Wilson,  in  all  his 
career,  never  served  a  church  that  was  fully  self- 
supporting.  As  a  missionary  pastor  and  preacher  he 
spent  his  life.  During  the  many  years  of  his  ministry, 
besides  eighteen  months  as  pastor  in  Arkansas,  he  served 
the  following  churches  in  Virginia  and  West  Virginia, 
though  this  list  may  not  be  complete:  Kerr's  Creek, 
Salem  (Rockbridge  County),  Sharon,  Cave  Spring, 
Laurel  Ridge,  Berean,  Sinking  Creek,  Pearisburg,  New- 
port, Green  Valley.  Walker's  Creek,  Pocahontas,  Prince- 
ton, Bluefield,  East  Roanoke,  Big  Stone  Gap,  Norton. 
On  his  mission  fields  he  built  sixteen  meeting-houses, 
raising  most  of  the  money  for  these  edifices  at  points  in 
the  State  where  the  Baptists  were  stronger.  More  than 
once  a  notice  like  the  following,  from  the  issue  of  Octo- 
ber 1.  1903,  appeared  in  the  Religious  Herald:  "The 
veteran  missionary  and  church  builder,  Rev.  M.  A.  Wil- 
son, is  among  us  once  more  and  on  his  wonted  mission. 
This  time  the  house  is  at  Norton,  a  growing  town  in 
Wise  County.  It  is  a  worthy  enterprise,  and  we  trust 
Brother  Wilson  may  meet  with  a  generous  response  from 
our  people."  Yet  his  work  was  not  simply  that  of 
begging  and  building.  He  had  great  evangelistic  gifts, 
and  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  were  led  to  Christ  and 
baptized  by  him.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  his  ready  mother- 
wit  and  his  tact  fulness  would  prove  most  valuable  to  him 
in  his  work  among  many  kinds  of  folks. 

He  passed  away  at  Coeburn,  Va.,  August  21,  1904,  his 
last  sermon  having  been  preached  at  Graham,  Va.  The 
New  Lebanon  Association  was  in  session  in  Bluefield  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  and  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
funeral  of  this  zealous  man  was  attended  by  the  delegates 
and  ministers  present  at  the  meeting;  this  was  highly 
fitting.  The  service,  held  in  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
was  conducted  by  Rev.  S.  H.  Thompson,  and  the  burial 
took  place  in  the  cemetery  of  the  city,  Maple  Grove. 


CHASTAIN  CLARK  MEADOR 

1825-1904 

The  Baptist  interests  of  Washington  City  have  always 
been  somewhat  identified  with  those  of  Virginia  Baptists, 
and  so  there  is  the  more  reason  why  a  sketch  of  one 
whose  whole  ministry  was  given  to  the  capital  city  should 
appear  in  this  volume,  since  he  was  born  in  Virginia. 
Bedford  County,  the  birthplace  of  so  many  Baptist 
preachers,  was  where,  on  July  11,  1825,  Chastain  Clark 
Meador  first  saw  the  light.  In  1 844  he  was  baptized  into 
the  fellowship  of  New  Hope  Baptist  Church,  which  was 
then  under  the  care  of  the  Rev.  James  Leftwich,  but  it 
seems  that  the  ordinance  was  administered  in  this  case  by 
Rev.  William  Harris,  familiarly  known  as  "Father 
Harris."  The  young  man,  with  business  as  his  expected 
career,  worked  for  a  time  on  the  farm  and  then  as  a 
miller,  but  it  was  about  this  time  that  he  was  a  teacher 
in  the  Sunday  school  of  Mt.  Hermon  Church.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-five  he  decided  to  become  a  preacher,  and 
in  order  to  fit  himself  for  this  career  turned  his  face 
towards  the  Valley  Union  Seminary  (now  Hollins  Col- 
lege) at  Botetourt  Springs,  a  school  for  boys  and  girls, 
presided  over  by  Dr.  Charles  L.  Cocke.  Here  he 
remained  about  two  years.  Before  going  off  to  school  he 
had  been  licensed  to  preach  by  Mt.  Hermon  Church,  and 
upon  his  return  home  he  taught  school  for  about  a  year, 
preaching  frequently  during  the  same  period  in  destitute 
neighborhoods.  In  1857  he  entered  Columbian  College, 
Washington,  where  he  graduated  with  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts  in  1857.  In  1860  Columbian  gave  him 
the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  many  years  later  the 

114 


CHASTAIN  CLARK  MEADOR  115 

honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  During  his 
vacation  days  he  worked  as  an  agent  for  the  college,  seek- 
ing students,  and  in  the  midst  of  the  session's  work 
started  a  mission  Sunday  school  in  what  is  now  known 
as  Southwest  Washington.  This  section  of  the  city  was 
then  known  as  "The  Island."  Notwithstanding  many 
obstacles,  he  worked  at  this  mission,  without  any  com- 
pensation, during  the  remainder  of  his  student  days. 
Once  he  went  to  one  of  the  leading  bookstores  of  the  city 
to  purchase  hymn  books  and  other  supplies  for  his 
mission.  The  proprietor,  a  canny  Scotchman  and  a 
staunch  Presbyterian,  who  was  interested  in  a  Presby- 
terian mission  in  the  same  section  of  the  city  as  Mr. 
Meador's  school,  asked  the  young  student  for  what  pur- 
pose he  was  buying  the  books.  When  the  student  told 
him,  he  said :  "  The  Island'  is  vera  aboondantly  supplied 
with  releegious  privileges  already."  There  were  indeed 
two  Presbyterian  missions  in  that  section  of  the  city,  and 
they  afterwards  grew  into  churches,  but  now  the  church 
that  came  out  of  the  little  Baptist  mission  has  twice  as 
many  members  as  both  of  these  churches  put  together. 
Some  of  the  "cold  water"  thrown  on  Mr.  Meador's  mis- 
sion came  from  the  hands  of  his  own  denomination ; 
when  he  asked  the  church  where  he  held  his  membership 
to  endorse  the  work  he  was  doing,  such  a  resolution  was 
passed,  but  not  until  a  cautious  brother  had  secured  the 
adoption  of  this  amendment :  "Provided  this  action  shall 
involve  no  financial  responsibility  upon  the  part  of  the 
church."  In  after  years,  in  telling  of  this  event,  he 
would  say :  "My  heart  went  down  into  my  boots,  but  I 
kept  on,  and  in  time  recovered  hope." 

A  certain  week  in  1857  had  for  Mr.  Meador  three 
most  important  events,  namely,  his  graduation  at  Colum- 
bian, his  marriage  to  Miss  Ann  Camp  Shields  ( formerly 
of  Norfolk.  Va. ),  and  the  organization  of  his  mission 


116         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

into  a  church,  with  him  as  the  pastor.     This  union  of 
church  and  pastor  was  to  last  for  over  forty-seven  years, 
in  many  ways  a  unique  and  remarkable  pastorate.     The 
little  afternoon  Sunday  school,  started  in  what  was  then 
the  least  promising  part  of  the  city,  using  a  rented  hall 
and  having  only  such  equipment  as  its  young  leader  could 
provide  by  his  own  efforts,  came  to  be  one  of  the  most 
vigorous  churches  in   Washington,   but  many  obstacles 
had  to  be  overcome.    Just  as  the  little  church  was  setting 
out  on  its  career  the  Civil  War  drove  many  of  its  mem- 
bers from  the  city  and  sowed  seeds  of  discord  among 
those   who   remained.      All   three  of  the   deacons   were 
Union  men,  and,  taking  exception  to  the  Southern  sym- 
pathies of  their  pastor,  offered  a  resolution  calling  for 
his  resignation.     When  the  vote  on  the  resolution  came 
no  one  save  the  three  deacons  voted  for  it,  the  rest  of  the 
church   rallying  to  the   side   of   the   pastor.      Then  the 
pastor  suggested  to  the  three  deacons  that  if  they  could 
not  abide  in  peace  and  harmony  they  had  better  take  their 
letters;   this  they  did.     One  of  the  three,  after  the  War 
was  over,  came  back  to  the  fellowship  of  the  church, 
became  once  more  one  of  its  deacons  and  continued,  until 
his  death,  active  in  the  church  and  devoted  to  the  pastor ; 
his  family,  after  more  than  half  a  century,  are  among 
the  most  devoted  members  of  the  church.     A  brother  of 
Mrs.    Meador,   a  hardware  merchant,   was  one  of  the 
many  who  left  Washington  when  the  War  broke  out. 
The  Lincoln  Administration  proceeded  to  confiscate  the 
property  of  all  such  persons,  but  Mr.  Meador,  anticipat- 
ing such  action  in  the  case  of  his  brother-in-law,  promptly 
put  up  in  place  of  the  old  sign  one  bearing  these  words : 
"C.  C.  Meador,  Dealer  in  Hardware  and  Builders'  Sup- 
plies."    So  great  was  his  versatility  and  business  ability 
that  throughout  the  years  of  the  War,  when  the  church, 
disorganized  and  broken,  was  able  to  do  little  for  his  sup- 
port, he  made  the  store  the  means  of  his  livelihood. 


CHASTAIN  CLARK  MEADOR  117 

Up  to  the  end  of  the  War  the  meeting-house  of  the 
church  was  an  unattractive  frame  building,  poorly 
adapted  to  the  work.  A  great  revival,  a  year  or  so  after 
the  War,  the  greatest  season  of  grace  known  up  to  that 
time  among  the  Baptists  of  Washington,  brought  over 
one  hundred  and  fifty  members  into  the  church  and  led 
to  the  erection  of  a  commodious  meeting-house.  But 
now  a  new  difficulty  was  encountered.  This  episode  in 
the  life  of  the  church  and  its  pastor  is  described  as  fol- 
lows by  Mr.  J.  J.  Darlington,  a  leading  lawyer  to-day  of 
Washington  and  a  son-in-law  of  Dr.  Meador: 

"The  Baltimore  &  Potomac  Railroad  Company,  then 
recently  authorized  to  construct  its  line  from  Baltimore 
to  Washington,  being  in  effect  an  extension  of  the 
Pennsylvania  Railroad  system,  selected  the  immediately 
adjoining  premises  as  the  site  of  its  roundhouse  and 
repair  shops,  running  a  spur  track  across  the  sidewalk 
within  a  few  feet  of  the  new  church  edifice,  which  the 
greater  part  of  the  children  attending  the  Sunday  school 
and  of  the  congregation  at  the  church  services  were  com- 
pelled to  cross,  not  infrequently  at  considerable  risk  of 
life  and  limb  from  the  locomotives  which  shot  in  and  out 
of  the  railroad  yards  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night, 
often  with  little  warning.  In  addition,  the  smokestacks 
from  its  engine  sheds  were  parallel  in  height  with  the 
windows  of  the  church  auditorium,  through  which 
smoke,  cinders,  and  dust  were  constantly  blown,  while 
the  hissing  of  steam  and  the  hammering  and  other  noises 
incident  to  locomotive  repairs  frequently  drowned  the 
music,  the  songs,  and  the  voices  of  the  pastor  and  others 
engaged  in  worship.  Several  of  the  leading  lawyers  of 
the  Washington  Bar  to  whom  the  doctor  applied  for 
legal  relief  declined  the  case,  being  of  opinion  that  the 
Act  of  Congress  which  authorized  the  Railroad  Company 
to  erect  such  works  and  left  the  selection  x)f  a  site  to  its 


118         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

own  judgment,  'legalized'  the  nuisance;  but  eventually 
the  doctor  succeeded  in  having  an  action  brought  to  test 
the  question,  which  resulted  in  the  famous  decision  by 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  the  case  of 
Fifth  Baptist  Church  vs.  Baltimore  &  Potomac  Railroad 
Company,  108  U.  S.,  317 — a  case  which  has  become  a 
leading  authority  ever  since  for  the  proposition  that 
invasion  of  the  comfortable  use  and  enjoyment  of  prop- 
erty is  a  'taking,'  in  the  sense  of  the  Constitutional  pro- 
hibition against  the  taking  of  property  without  compen- 
sation, and  that,  consequently,  the  legislative  grant  of 
power  to  establish  the  railroad  repair  shops  was  subject 
to  the  duty  of  compensating  the  adjoining  property 
owners  for  any  injury  to  the  comfortable  enjoyment  of 
their  property.  The  Railroad  Company  subsequently 
purchased  the  church  property  upon  the  terms  at  which 
it  was  offered  to  them  before  the  litigation  was  con- 
cluded, namely,  payment  of  its  actual  cost  to  the  church— 
this  after  having  been  compelled  to  pay  about  $20,000  in 
damages  for  the  maintenance  of  the  nuisance  prior  to  the 
purchase,  aided  by  which  funds  the  present  Fifth  Bap- 
tist Church  property,  valued  at  about  $80,000,  was  con- 
structed, and  which  constitutes  one  of  the  most  attract- 
ive, commodious,  and  desirable  church  buildings  of  the 
capital  city." 

In  1904  Dr.  Meador,  in  view  of  his  advancing  years, 
resigned  as  pastor,  whereupon  the  church  elected  him 
Pastor  Emeritus  for  the  rest  of  his  life,  without  decreas- 
ing his  salary,  and  chose,  as  Active  Pastor,  Rev.  Dr. 
Weston  Bruner.  Dr.  Meador  now  served  as  he  was  able, 
his  presence  being  especially  desired  when  members,  who 
had  known  him  through  the  years,  passed  away.  Just 
after  an  address,  on  one  of  these  funeral  occasions,  he 
fell  unconscious  on  the  floor  of  the  pulpit  and  died  a 
few  hours  later.  Thus  his  desire  that  he  might  die  in 


CHASTAIN  CLARK  MEADOR  119 

the  service  of  his  church  was  realized.  He  passed  away 
November  9,  1904.  To-day  the  Fifth  Street  Church, 
which  began  as  The  Island  Church,  and  which  owes  so 
much  of  its  success,  under  God,  to  Dr.  Meador,  has  the 
second  largest  Sunday  school  in  Washington  and  main- 
tains eight  laborers,  namely,  the  pastor,  the  assistant,  two 
missionaries  in  China,  one  in  Africa,  one  in  Persia,  one 
in  Kansas  City,  and  one  in  Tampa,  Fla.  One  of  the 
China  missionaries  is  pastor,  at  Wu  Chow,  of  the  Meador 
Memorial  Baptist  Church. 


THOMAS  F.  EDMONDSON 
1872-1904 

Within  the  bounds  of  the  Lebanon  and  New  River 
Associations  the  work  of  Thomas  F.  Edmondson  was 
done.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  made  a  profession  of  faith 
in  Christ  and  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
White  Top  Baptist  Church,  Grayson  County,  Virginia. 
Two  years  later  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  three  years 
after  his  conversion  he  was  ordained,  the  presbytery  con- 
sisting of  Rev.  A.  J.  Hart,  Rev.  G.  W.  Pennington,  and 
Rev.  N.  M.  Blevins.  He  was  the  son  of  Dr.  Isaac 
Edmondson,  having  been  born  August  7,  1872.  After 
the  public  schools,  the  only  educational  preparation  he 
had  for  his  life  work  was  a  part  of  the  session  of  1896- 
97  at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Louis- 
ville, Ky.  On  August  28,  1892,  he  was  married  to  Miss 
Delilah  H.  Blevins ;  she,  with  five  children,  survived  him. 
For  eight  terms  he  taught  in  the  public  schools,  and,  as  a 
minister  of  the  gospel,  was  pastor  of  these  churches : 
White  Top,  Laurel,  Grosses  Creek,  State  Line,  Pleasant 
View,  and  Apple  Grove.  In  his  obituary,  by  Rev.  C.  T. 
Taylor,  in  the  Minutes  of  the  General  Association,  he  is 
thus  described :  "He  was  considered  an  able  preacher, 
gifted  as  a  revivalist,  and  a  good  organizer.  He  was  a 
firm  believer  in  foreign  missions.  He  preached  missions 
with  power  and  contributed  of  his  own  means.  He  was 
a  pure  man,  a  loving  husband  and  father,  a  true  friend. 
His  chief  aim  in  life  was  the  moral  and  religious  eleva- 
tion of  the  people  with  whom  he  had  to  do."  He  died 
December  6,  1904,  being  laid  low  by  that  insidious  dis- 
ease, consumption. 

120 


HARVEY  HATCH KK 

1834-1905 

Harvey  Hatcher,  the  son  of  Henry  Hatcher  and  the 
grandson  of  Rev.  Jeremiah  Hatcher,  was  born  in  Bed- 
ford County,  Virginia,  July  16,  1834.  He  was  in  almost 
every  respect  different  from  his  younger  brother, 
William  Eldridge,  of  whom  a  sketch  is  found  in  this 
volume.  Harvey  was  three  inches  taller  than  William, 
and  while  William  was  like  the  Lathams,  Harvey  was 
''a  Hatcher  from  back  in  the  primitive  days  of  Careby 
in  England."  Harvey  was  "a  sport;  his  temperament, 
his  physical  make-up,  and  his  habits  sent  him  afield.  A 
horse  was  his  glory,  a  dog  was  his  companion,  a  gun  was 
the  triumph  of  all  mechanism  in  his  sight;  game,  from 
the  deer  to  the  quail,  commanded  his  tireless  pursuit. 
.  The  chase  set  him  wild ;  the  cry  of  the  pack,  no 
matter  whose  it  was,  broke  him  from  everything  else, 
and  he  would  follow  the  dogs  through  the  day  and  far 
into  the  dead  of  night."  One  day  he  was  in  the  midst 
of  dressing,  not  having  put  on  his  shoes,  when  a  fox 
came  into  sight,  hard  followed  by  the  dogs.  When  he 
came  to  himself  he  was  "four  miles  from  home,  in  the 
midst  of  the  most  fashionable  and  aristocratic  part"  of 
the  community  in  which  he  lived.  He  was  without  vest 
or  collar,  and  nothing  was  on  his  feet  save  the  cuts  and 
scratches,  the  blood  and  the  dirt  that  his  cross-country 
run  had  brought  him. 

In  1854  the  two  brothers  entered  Richmond  College. 
While  the  younger  brother  was  gifted  as  a  speaker, 
Harvey  was  "great  on  mathematics."  Yet  Harvey  had 
aspirations  to  be  a  speaker,  and  after  many  trying  experi- 

121 


122         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ences  "became  an  exceedingly  fluent,  ready,  self- 
possessed  and  humorous  public  speaker."  Both  brothers 
graduated  in  1858,  W.  S.  Penick  being  one  of  their 
fellow-graduates.  (In  the  sketch  of  Mr.  Penick,  in  this 
volume,  the  list  of  the  whole  class  is  given.)  After 
teaching  for  a  season,  Mr.  Hatcher  began  his  pastoral 
career  at  the  Four  Mile  Creek  Church,  Henrico  County, 
having  in  this  field  "marked  success."  During  the  War 
he  was  pastor  to  a  very  strong  negro  church  and  "had 
much  joy  in  his  work."  When  the  War  was  over  he 
was  assistant  to  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter,  pastor  of  the  Grace 
Street  Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  and  then  for  a  year  a 
State  evangelist  in  Maryland,  and  then  he  became  pastor 
of  the  Court  Street  Church,  Portsmouth.  He  always 
had  "an  intense  yearning  for  western  life,  and  for  a 
number  of  years  was  exceedingly  happy  in  the  pastorate 
of  the  churches  of  Keyesville  and  Moberly,  Mo.  He  was 
later  on  called  to  Richmond,  and  served  for  several  years 
what  is  now  the  Grove  Avenue  Church,"  known  in  that 
day  as  the  Sidney  Church.  "It  is  due  to  Mr.  Hatcher  to 
say  that  he  never  felt  himself  quite  adapted  to  the  pastor- 
ate. He  had  a  certain  rugged  candor  which  made  him 
impatient  under  the  restraints  and  confinement  of  the 
pastoral  relation,  and  for  the  last  half  of  his  public  life 
he  resisted  all  efforts  to  bring  him  back  to  pastoral 
work." 

Through  the  suggestion  and  request  of  Dr.  A.  E. 
Dickinson,  Mr.  Hatcher  was  led  to  take  up  "pencil  driv- 
ing," as  he  called  it,  for  the  press.  He  succeeded  far 
beyond  his  hopes,  but  he  reached  his  success  by  hard 
work,  writing  his  pieces  from  three  to  five  times.  This 
work  was  first  undertaken  for  the  Religious  Herald,  but 
later  he  crossed  over  into  North  Carolina  and  wrote  for 
the  Biblical  Recorder,  and  in  1882  went  to  Missouri  and 
for  two  years  helped  Dr.  William  Harrison  Williams, 


HARVEY  HATCHER  123 

editor  of  the  Central  Baptist.  In  the  fall  of  1884  he 
moved  to  Georgia  and  bought  an  interest  in  the  Christian 
Inde^.  One  morning  in  Atlanta  he  had  a  call  from 
Dr.  Benjamin  Griffith,  of  the  American  Baptist  Publica- 
tion Society.  This  visit  led  to  Dr.  Hatcher's  beginning 
his  work  with  the  Philadelphia  Society  that  was  to  last 
seventeen  years.  A  branch  was  established  in  Atlanta, 
and  Mr.  Hatcher  was  connected  for  a  time  with  this 
branch  house  and  for  a  season  with  the  branch  in 
St.  Louis.  "In  this  special  work  he  was  exceedingly 
happy.  His  duties  took  him  through  many  of  the 
Southern  States.  He  had  a  heart  for  fellowship  and 
made  friends  wherever  he  went.  He  did  not  forget  his 
work,  for  wherever  he  went  his  pleas  were  heard  in  favor 
of  Baptist  literature  and  Baptist  principles.  He  was  well 
known,  and  there  always  awaited  him  a  joyous  welcome, 
go  where  he  might."  Once,  when  invited  by  the  South 
Carolina  Baptist  Convention  to  tell  in  thirty  minutes 
about  the  work  of  his  Society,  he  said :  "Brethren,  I  can 
not  tell  you  of  all  the  glorious  work  of  the  Society  in 
thirty  minutes,  nor  in  thirty  hours,  nor  in  thirty  years, 
nor  in  thirty  decades,  nor  thirty  centuries." 

Dr.  Hatcher  was  a  man  of  great  physical  vigor.  He 
was  tall  and  had  a  finely  proportioned  figure.  And  he 
kept  much  of  his  splendid  bodily  strength  to  the  end. 
His  love  for  field  sports  never  waned.  When  he  was 
seventy-two  he  wrote:  "Last  season  I  was  often  in  the 
fields  and  frequently  brought  down  one  with  each  barrel 
on  the  flush.  My  sight  was  so  far  preserved  that  I 
needed  no  glasses  to  aid  me,  and  I  could  locate  a  flying 
quail  as  I  did  when  I  was  fifty."  His  death  was  sudden 
and  on  Sunday ;  he  had  preached  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the 
Beaufort  (South  Carolina)  Church;  at  four,  in  the  Sea 
Island  Hotel,  without  pain  or  struggle,  the  end  came. 
Two  days  before,  in  a  party  of  nine,  down  on  Caliboga 


124         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Sound,  the  eighteen  dogs  had  started  a  deer  that  came 
towards  Dr.  Hatcher.  When  the  deer  was  within 
twenty-five  feet  of  the  venerable  hunter  there  was  a 
"keen  crack  of  his  gun"  and  the  game  was  his.  Among 
the  party  were  Rev.  C.  C.  Brown  and  Deacon  Danner, 
of  the  Beaufort  Church.  His  death  was  on  January  15, 
1905. 

Dr.  Hatcher  was  married  twice.  Two  sons,  Harvey 
Hatcher  and  Hally  Hatcher,  a  daughter,  Miss  Frances  B. 
Hatcher,  and  his  second  wife  survived  him. 


JOHN  WILLIAM  RYLAND 

1836-1905 

The  oldest  of  the  thirteen  children  of  Joseph  Ryland 
and  his  wife,  Priscilla  Courtney  Bagby,  was  John  Wil- 
liam Ryland.  From  the  old  home,  "Marlboro,"  in  King 
and  Queen  County,  where  he  was  born  October  19,  1836, 
he  went  forth  to  Richmond  College,  from  which  institu- 
tion he  graduated  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in 
1858.  His  ordination  to  the  gospel  ministry  took  place 
at  Bruington,  his  mother  church.  After  two  years  of 
colporteur  work  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia  he  was,  for 
the  four  years  of  the  War,  in  the  army,  Rev.  W.  E. 
Wiatt  being  one  of  his  comrades.  On  July  24,  1866,  he 
was  married  by  Elder  John  Pollard  to  Mrs.  Lucy  K. 
Roane  (who  was  Miss  Lucy  F.  Bagby),  and  in  January 
of  the  following  year  he  was  called  to  the  pastorate  of 
Goshen  Bridge  (Rockbridge  County)  and  Deerfield 
(Augusta  County)  Churches.  On  this  field  he  remained 
for  some  five  years,  being  for  part  of  the  time  pastor 
also  of  the  Craigsville  and  Williamsville  Churches,  and 
preaching  at  other  places  throughout  the  counties  of 
Rockbridge,  Bath,  and  Alleghany.  In  his  report  to  the 
State  Mission  Board,  in  1872,  he  wrote:  'There  is  not  a 
week  in  which  I  am  not  called  upon  to  go  to  destitute 
neighborhoods  to  preach.  The  people  seem  to  be  hungry 
for  the  bread  of  life."  In  October,  1873,  he  was  called 
to  Hermitage  and  Zoar  Churches  in  Middlesex  County. 
After  two  years  he  gave  up  the  Zoar  Church  and  suc- 
ceeded Elder  Thomas  B.  Evans  in  the  pastorate  of 
Olivet  Church,  King  and  Queen  County.  He  served 
these  churches,  Hermitage  and  Olivet,  until  his  death  on 

125 


126         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

March  26,  1905.  He  had  wished  to  die  the  pastor  of 
these  flocks,  and  so  it  was.  A  painful  and  insidious  dis- 
ease that  baffled  the  skill  of  physicians  in  his  own  county, 
Richmond,  and  Baltimore,  kept  him  from  active  service 
for  a  year  before  the  end  came.  On  the  very  Sunday 
when  his  last  appointment  was  to  be  met  at  Hermitage 
Church  he  departed  this  life.  A  few  months  after  his 
death,  Olivet  Church,  on  the  thirteenth  anniversary  of  his 
pastorate,  had  a  memorial  service  in  his  honor.  A  crayon 
portrait  of  the  dead  pastor  was  presented  by  Judge  A.  B. 
Evans,  unveiled  by  Lucile  (a  granddaughter  of  Elder 
Ryland),  and  accepted  on  behalf  of  the  church  by  Rev. 
W.  W.  Sisk.  The  church  also  placed  a  marble  tablet  in 
his  honor  on  her  walls.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife  and 
his  two  sons,  Walter  H.  and  Willie  Mason  Ryland. 

One  who  knew  him  best  of  all  says  of  Elder  Ryland: 
"He  was  quiet,  pure,  unselfish,  and  true  to  his  God  and 
work.  His  aim  was  God's  glory  and  the  salvation  of 
souls."  In  a  notice  of  his  death  the  Religious  Herald 
said  that  he  was  "one  of  the  most  faithful,  useful,  trans- 
parent and  lovable  men  we  have  ever  known.  He  had  no 
vaulting  ambitions.  His  tastes  were  simple  and  his  life 
was  that  of  the  quiet  country  pastor,  who  led  his  flock, 
under  divine  guidance  and  in  constant  dependence  on 
divine  power,  into  green  pastures  and  beside  the  still 
waters.  ...  In  all  his  sufferings  he  was  brave, 
meek,  cheerful,  and  uncomplaining." 


JOHN  MOODY  LAMB 

1821-1905 

The  Religious  Herald  for  April  20,  1905,  gave  its 
readers,  in  an  article  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Mitchell,  the  picture 
of  a  face  wonderfully  attractive  by  reason  of  its  beautiful 
blend  of  intelligence  and  gentleness.  This  was  the  like- 
ness of  Rev.  John  Moody  Lamb,  who,  twelve  days  before 
the  issue  of  the  paper,  on  April  8,  had  passed  away.  He 
was  born  on  June  5,  1821,  in  Charles  City  County,  his 
father,  John  Lamb,  being  of  English  extraction  and 
one  of  a  large  family  of  children.  The  mother,  who  was 
as  frail  and  delicate  as  she  was  beloved,  went  to  an  early 
grave,  leaving  three  children.  Two  of  these  children 
being  otherwise  cared  for,  the  father  and  John  were  left 
alone  in  the  home.  This  parent,  a  man  of  strong  affec- 
tions and  mind,  gave  the  time,  that  his  farm  and  books 
did  not  take,  to  the  instruction  of  his  son.  He  was  a 
great  reader  and  the  owner  of  a  fine  library,  but  does  not 
seem  to  have  known  child  nature,  and  so  the  retiring  boy 
grew  up  ignorant  of  the  common  events  of  life  and  apart 
from  the  world.  At  the  age  of  seven  he  heard  the 
servants  talking  of  a  marriage  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
ran  to  his  father,  asking:  "What  is  marriage?  Is  it  a 
high  bridge  or  a  deep  ditch?"  His  father's  answer  must 
have  puzzled  the  child :  "It  is  often  both,  my  son." 
Upon  his  elder  brother's  return  home  as  a  graduate  of 
Hampden-Sidney  College,  he  became  the  boy's  teacher. 
So  great  was  the  pupil's  admiration  for  the  character  of 
his  instructor  that  in  after-life  he  said:  "I  always 
regarded  him  with  such  love  and  reverence  that  I  felt 
that  I  was  unworthy  to  untie  the  latchet  of  his  shoe." 

127 


128         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

When  this  teacher  died,  at  the  age  of  forty-two,  it  was 
said  by  one  of  his  fellow-county  men  that  any  one  in  the 
community  could  have  been  better  spared.  At  the  age  of 
seventeen  John  was  converted,  and  baptized  by  Elder 
James  Clopton  in  the  Chickahominy  River  at  Potter's 
Field  near  Mt.  Pleasant  Church.  The  presbytery  that 
set  him  apart  for  the  gospel  ministry  had  as  its  members 
Drs.  R.  B.  C.  Howell  and  J.  B.  Jeter.  About  this  time 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Christian,  who  is  described 
as  "one  of  the  most  godly  and  saintly  of  women."  The 
churches  that  he  served  were  Manoah,  Mt.  Pleasant,  and 
Samaria,  all  in  the  Dover  Association.  After  more  than 
twenty -five  years  of  this  work  he  was  obliged,  because  of 
ill  health,  to  give  up  the  pastorate.  He  continued,  how- 
ever, to  preach  as  long  as  he  was  able,  and  was  active  in 
the  Sunday  school  until  he  could  no  more  attend  the 
services  of  the  sanctuary.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  W.  Mitchell,  who 
knew  him  well,  says  of  him :  "As  a  scholar  he  was  far 
superior  to  his  day  and  generation.  .  .  .  He  was 
not  only  a  diligent  student  of  the  Scriptures,  but  also  of 
the  classics,  and  he  became  well  versed  in  the  best  litera- 
ture. .  .  .  As  a  preacher  he  was  mighty  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. .  .  .  His  sermons  were  well  prepared,  and 
were  gems  of  exegesis,  logic,  and  rhetoric.  ...  As 
a  pastor  he  was  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season." 

During  the  Civil  War  his  comfortable  home  and  his 
library  were  destroyed,  his  belongings  "scattered  to  the 
winds  and  he  carried  off  to  a  Northern  prison."  He 
knew  not  who  would  care  for  his  wife,  and  when  he 
returned  home  he  had  almost  to  begin  life  again,  having 
no  tools,  no  books,  and  no  money,  and  his  abode  being  a 
cabin,  yet  he  never  uttered  a  word  about  his  disasters  nor 
against  his  enemies.  Although  childless  himself,  he 
greatly  loved  children,  being  deeply  interested  in  his 
brother's  children  and  in  the  orphans  whom  he  brought 


JOHN  MOODY  LAMB  129 

into  his  own  home.  One  of  those  for  whom  he  thus 
cared,  to-day  Judge  Edmund  Waddill,  Jr.,  United  States 
District  Judge,  was  as  his  own  son,  giving  him  love,  com- 
fort, and  reverence.  After  the  death  of  the  wife  of  his 
youth  he  married  Mrs.  Susan  B.  Harwood,  "a  woman  of 
rare  beauty  and  spirit  and  piety,  blended  with  inimitable 
merriment." 

One  who  knew  him  well  writes  thus  of  Mr.  Lamb : 
"An  American  officer,  describing  the  second  inaugura- 
tion of  Washington,  said :  'In  the  pure  serenity  of  moral 
integrity  and  grandeur  he  seemed  to  stand  outside  of 
physical  self,  and  when  he  began:  "I,  George  Washing- 
ton," my  blood  seemed  to  run  cold,  and  every  one  around 
to  start.'  So  I  have  seen  a  congregation  move  when  this 
man  of  God,  with  his  ringing,  wonderful  voice,  read  at 
the  burial  of  the  dead  those  immortal,  inspiring  words 
of  Paul:  'If  after  the  manner  of  men';  he  seemed  to 
stand,  pure  soul,  untrammeled  by  flesh,  exalted  by  faith, 
in  the  presence  of  God,  declaring  his  lordship  over  lift- 
and  death.  ...  I  lived  close  to  his  life,  yet  my 
perspective  was  good,  and  it  is  a  perfect  test  of  character 
that  a  man  seems  a  heroic  figure  to  those  who  shared  his 
daily  life;  so  he  seemed  to  my  husband  and  to  me." 
Mr.  John  O.  Otey,  who  was  the  lifelong  friend  of 
Mr.  Lamb,  and  whom  Mr.  Lamb  baptized  in  the  Chicka- 
hominy  River,  probably  at  the  spot  where  John  Smith 
was  captured,  has  given  valuable  help  towards  the 
preparation  of  this  sketch. 


THOMAS  W.  LEWIS 
1822-1905 

Northern  Piedmont  Virginia  was  where  Thomas  W. 
Lewis  was  born,  spent  most  of  his  life,  and  died. 
Madison  Court  House,  that  lies  close  to  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains  and  perhaps  twenty  miles  from  a  railroad, 
was  his  birthplace  and  the  last  earthly  scene  on  which  his 
eyes  rested.  From  January  11,  1822,  to  May  16,  1905, 
a  stretch  of  eighty-three  years  and  four  months,  the  path 
of  this  servant  of  God  scarcely  passed  beyond  the  bounds 
of  Madison  and  Culpeper  Counties.  Thomas  B.  Lewis 
and  Catharine  P.  Gaines  were  his  parents.  When  he  was 
about  ten  years  of  age  they,  with  their  children,  went  to 
Ohio.  What  must  such  a  trip,  in  the  first  quarter  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  have  meant  to  a  boy!  Scarcely  had 
two  years  passed  when  the  family  was  retracing  its  steps 
to  Virginia,  but  now  they  lacked  the  help  of  the  father, 
for  he  had  fallen  on  sleep  in  Ohio.  The  mother  went 
with  her  children  to  her  parents'  home  in  Culpeper,  and 
here  Thomas  attended  school  for  several  sessions.  When 
he  was  about  sixteen  years  old  the  family  settled  once 
more  at  Madison  Court  House,  where,  for  one  year,  he 
had  the  advantages  of  an  academy  course.  In  1839  he 
made  a  profession  of  religion  and  united  with  the  Beth- 
car  Baptist  Church.  After  he  had  taught  school  and 
been  a  clerk  for  several  years  he  decided  to  study  medi- 
cine, and  began  to  make  his  plans  to  carry  out  this 
resolve.  His  pastor  and  church,  however,  were  con- 
vinced that  he  ought  to  preach.  "He  entered  into  their 
views,  abandoned  the  store,  turned  away  from  the  con- 
templated profession,  and  gave  himself  to  teaching  and 

130 


THOMAS  W.  LEWIS  131 

to  preparing  himself  for  the  work  of  the  ministry."  His 
first  pastorate,  which  was  to  last  forty-five  years,  began, 
with  Bethcar  Church,  in  1847.  His  ministry  at  Rapidan 
covered  some  thirty-five  years,  while  his  service  at  Good 
Hope  and  Thornton's  Gap  was  not  so  protracted.  In 
this  day  of  short  pastorates,  what  thoughts  does  such  a 
record  of  long  years  of  service  awaken?  His  wife,  who 
was  Miss  Mary  Stark,  and  to  whom  he  was  married  in 
1851,  bore  him  eight  children,  all  of  them  living  to  be 
grown.  The  necessity  of  caring  for  his  own  family  and 
that  of  his  mother  kept  him  in  the  store  and  schoolroom 
so  closely  that  he  did  not  attend  the  general  denomina- 
tional gatherings  as  much  as  doubtless  otherwise  he 
would  have  done.  "He  was  especially  successful  as  a 
builder  of  churches — a  number  now  standing  as  memo- 
rials of  his  tact,  zeal,  and  perseverance/'  For  a  short 
season  he  was  a  missionary  of  the  State  Board,  doing 
good  work.  "Though  not  a  practiced  platform  debater, 
he  delighted  to  contend  for  his  views  around  his  own 
fireside,"  and  his  home  was  open  in  generous  hospitality 
to  his  friends.  Close  to  the  beautiful  "blue  wall,"  and 
far  from  the  hurry  of  the  busy  world,  what  seasons  of 
fellowship  were  surely  enjoyed  around  this  preacher's 
hearthstone.  "He  was  a  man  of  fine  intellect,  read  much, 
was  a  Baptist  of  the  old,  regular  type,  loved  the  great 
doctrines  well,  preached  them  forcibly,  and  left  his 
congregation  in  good  condition." 

The  obituary  of  this  good  man,  in  the  General  Asso- 
ciation Minutes,  which  is  unsigned,  and  from  which  the 
foregoing  part  of  this  sketch  is  almost  wholly  taken, 
closes  thus :  "His  end  came  gradually,  and  though  it  was 
not  viewed  with  rapture,  there  were  no  enslaving  and 
humiliating  desires  to  remain  in  the  flesh ;  yielding  him- 
self in  all  things  to  Christ,  his  Redeemer,  he  fell  on  sleep. 


132         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

.     .     .  Sunday,  June  11,  was  set  apart  by  Bethcar 

and  Rapidan  Churches  to  celebrate  his  memory;  at  this 
service  Psalm  37  was  read,  D.  M.  Pattie  offered  prayer, 
and  Rev.  Charles  A.  Hall  preached  the  sermon,  his  text 
being  I  Samuel  2:9— "He  will  keep  the  feet  of  his 
saints." 


JOHN  VVYATT  WARD 
1827-1905 

Even  when  the  snows  of  many  winters  had  given  to 
Rev.  John  Wyatt  Ward  the  hoary  head,  which  is  a 
crown  of  honor,  there  shone  forth  from  his  eyes  a  daunt- 
less courage  and  the  flash  of  a  perpetual  youth.  It  is 
not  hard  to  see,  while  looking  on  such  a  face,  how  he 
could  be  a  good  soldier,  an  inspiring  teacher,  and  a 
devoted  pastor,  and  he  was  all  three.  He  was  born  in 
Nansemond  County,  Virginia,  January  22,  1827.  He 
was  baptized  by  Rev.  J.  G.  Councill,  and  united  with  the 
Sycamore  Church.  He  graduated  at  Georgetown  Col- 
lege, Kentucky,  in  1856,  taking  the  degree  of  A.  B., 
Dr.  D.  R.  Campbell  being  president ;  and  at  Madison,  now 
Colgate  University,  in  1858.  His  ordination  took  place 
in  August,  1858,  at  Portsmouth,  and  the  first  Sunday  of 
the  following  month  he  preached  his  first  sermon  as  the 
pastor  of  Mill  Swamp  Church  (Portsmouth  Associa- 
tion). He  purchased  a  farm  in  the  Isle  of  Wight  County 
and  made  it  beautiful  with  trees,  rare  shrubs,  and  a 
wealth  of  flowers.  Yet  from  this  lovely  home  he  went 
forth,  at  the  call  of  his  country,  and  became  chaplain  of 
the  3d  Virginia  Regiment  of  Infantry,  Kemper's 
Brigade,  Pickett's  Division.  Upon  his  return  from  the 
War  he  was  married  to  Miss  Cassie  Jones,  "one  of  the 
most  beautiful  ladies  in  Southeastern  Virginia,"  whose 
smile  was  to  be  the  "light  of  his  home"  and  her  voice 
"the  music  of  his  pathway."  Although  frail  physically, 
he  worked  as  a  pastor  for  a  long  series  of  years,  and 
during  a  part  of  this  time  taught  in  his  home  a  large 
school.  The  churches  that  he  served  as  pastor  were 

133 


134         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Antioch,  Smithfield,  Mill  Swamp,  Moore's  Swamp, 
Surry  Court  House,  and  Central  Hill,  in  the  Portsmouth 
Association,  and  Atlantic,  Broadway,  Modest  Town, 
and  Chincoteague,  in  the  Accomac  Association.  "He 
was  a  preacher  of  ability,  clearness,  and  faithfulness.  He 
possessed  evangelistic  gifts  which  he  used  with  great 
effectiveness.  .  .  .  He  exhibited  the  gospel  which 
he  preached  by  a  long  life  of  devout  living  and  sincere 
piety.  .  .  .  By  his  wide  culture  and  happy  facility 
for  imparting  knowledge  he  was  a  blessing  to  his  com- 
munity." On  the  afternoon  of  May  31,  1905,  he 
preached  the  funeral  of  one  of  the  pupils  in  his  school, 
the  text  being  II  Corinthians  5:10.  The  next  morning 
he  was  found  asleep  in  death.  His  widow,  two  sons,  and 
a  daughter  survived  him. 


JOHN  POLLARD 

1839-1905 

John  Pollard  was  born  near  Stevensville,  King  and 
Queen  County,  Virginia,  November  17,  1839.  His 
father  was  Colonel  John  Pollard,  a  distinguished  citizen 
and  attorney  of  that  county,  and  his  mother  was  Miss 
Juliet  Jeffries,  sister  of  Judge  James  Jeffries,  who  for 
many  years  presided  upon  the  Circuit  Court  Bench  in 
Tidewater.  His  ancestry  included  many  men  and  women 
of  prominence  and  worth  in  the  history  of  the  colony 
and  State.  Their  home  has  always  been  within  a  radius 
of  fifty  miles  of  Richmond,  Va.,  and  their  names  have 
always  been  identified  with  the  progress  of  this  part  of 
the  commonwealth.  He  loved  his  State  with  the  same 
patriotic  ardor  of  his  forefathers,  for  there  was  no  move- 
ment for  public  good  which  did  not  receive  his  hearty 
and  active  support. 

His  father  was  a  man  of  superlative  force  in  public 
affairs  no  less  than  in  home  relations.  His  judgment, 
intelligence,  and  unswerving  integrity  were  invaluable  in 
all  matters  of  public  and  private  concern.  The  same 
sagacity  which  distinguished  his  ancestors  in  the  making 
of  the  republic  was  manifested  in  Colonel  John  Pollard, 
whose  mother,  Katherine  Robinson,  belonged  to  the  dis- 
tinguished Robinson  family  which  produced  Christopher 
Robinson,  President  of  the  King's  Council,  and  John 
Robinson,  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Burgesses.  There 
were  five  sons  and  three  daughters,  who  went  out  from 
the  home  well  equipped  by  parental  instruction  and  edu- 
cation in  the  best  schools.  Thomas,  the  eldest  son,  chose 
the  ministry,  but,  after  graduation  at  Columbian  College, 

135 


136         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

died  at  Aiken,  S.  C,  while  on  a  trip  in  search  of 
restored  health.  John,  the  second  son,  took  up  his  older 
brother's  chosen  profession  at  an  early  age.  His  gentle- 
ness, genial  spirit,  and  studious  habits  suggested  that  the 
step  was  a  wise  one.  He  received  his  early  education  at 
Stevensville  Academy,  and  entered  Columbian  College, 
Washington,  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  Here  he  was  gradu- 
ated before  the  age  of  twenty-one  with  the  first  honors 
of  his  class.  Among  his  classmates  were  Hon.  William 
L.  Wilson,  Postmaster-General  under  President  Cleve- 
land, who  was  a  native  of  the  same  county  and  a  lifelong 
friend ;  Otis  Mason,  of  the  National  Museum ;  T.  Edwin 
Brown,  of  the  Northern  ministry,  and  James  Nelson,  of 
the  Southern  pulpit.  While  in  Washington,  during  the 
stirring  times  from  1857  to  1861,  he  took  great  interest 
in  the  debates  in  Congress.  His  reminiscences  of  the 
great  men  of  that  day  have  been  a  source  of  pleasure  and 
information  to  those  around  him.  He  was  present  when 
Charles  Sumner  delivered  his  famous  speech  on  the 
''Barbarism  of  Slavery."  He  also  heard  Lincoln's 
inaugural  address  and  saw  the  oath  of  office  administered 
by  Chief  Justice  Taney. 

Upon  his  graduation  he  was  elected,  in  1860,  to  a 
tutorship  in  Columbian  College,  where  he  taught  and,  at 
the  same  time,  studied  theology  under  the  direction  of 
Dr,  George  W.  Samson,  president  of  the  college.  In  the 
spring  of  1861,  Virginia  having  seceded  and  war  having 
been  declared,  the  young  teacher  decided  to  cast  his  lot 
with  his  native  State,  so  he  resigned  and  returned  to 
Virginia.  Hermitage  and  Clarke's  Neck  Churches, 
Middlesex  County,  having  called  him,  he  accepted  the 
call  and  settled  near  Saluda.  During  the  Civil  War, 
while  not  a  soldier,  Mr.  Pollard  was  frequently  at  the 
front,  carrying  clothing  and  provisions  to  the  soldier  boys 
of  his  congregation  and  community. 


JOHN  POLLARD  137 

In  the  summer  of  1861  he  married  Miss  Virginia 
Bagby,  daughter  of  John  Bagby,  of  Stevensville,  and 
sister  of  Richard  Hugh  Bagby,  George  Franklin  and 
Alfred  Bagby.  Through  the  fifty  years  of  their  wedded 
life  she  was  a  true  helpmeet,  presiding  over  his  home 
with  firmness  and  judgment.  She  survives  him. 

In  1870  Dr.  Pollard  moved  to  Baltimore  to  become 
pastor  of  the  Lee  Street  Baptist  Church  of  that  city.  At 
the  installation  services  the  distinguished  Dr.  Richard 
Fuller,  a  Baltimore  pastor,  delivered  the  charge  to  the 
young  pastor,  and  was  his  colleague  for  many  years. 
Here  he  labored  with  marked  success  for  a  decade,  and 
left  a  church,  which  had  been  weak  and  torn  with 
troubles,  strong  and  vigorous.  His  successors  at  this 
church  were  Dr.  H.  M.  Wharton,  Dr.  E.  M.  Poteat, 
Dr.  E.  Y.  Mullins,  and  Dr.  Weston  Bruner.  While  in 
Baltimore  he  was  moderator  of  the  Maryland  Union 
Association. 

A  call  from  the  Leigh  Street  Church  of  Richmond 
brought  him  back  to  his  native  State.  Here  for  six  years 
he  wrought  with  effectiveness  and  success,  greatly 
endearing  himself  to  the  community,  till,  in  1886,  he  was 
elected  to  the  Chair  of  English  at  Richmond  College, 
succeeding  the  lamented  Dr.  A.  B.  Brown.  The  cause 
of  education  was  very  near  his  heart,  and  he  was  always 
active  for  its  advancement.  He  took  up  his  work  at  the 
college  with  the  same  enthusiasm  and  devotion  that  had 
marked  his  ministry.  He  was  in  these  years  a  member 
of  the  Philological  Society  of  this  country,  and  always 
attended  its  sessions.  He  was  a  lifelong  student,  and  his 
attainments  in  history,  literature  and  theology,  which 
were  large,  but  enabled  him  to  serve  more  efficiently  his 
fellow-men.  He  served  the  college  for  fifteen  years, 
until  the  summer  of  1901,  when  he  resigned  to  take  up 
the  quieter  and  less  strenuous  duties  of  a  pastorate  in 


138         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

the  county  of  Caroline.  He  ministered  to  the  churches 
of  Bowling  Green  and  Upper  Zion  on  alternate  Sundays, 
and  soon  became  a  force  for  the  religious  and  social 
uplift  of  that  community  which  will  not  soon  be  for- 
gotten. 

Dr.  Pollard's  early  ministry  was  characterized  by 
abounding  enthusiasm,  industry,  and  studiousness. 
These  qualities  opened  the  hearts  of  both  young  and  old 
to  his  influence,  for  he  was  the  happy  comrade  with  the 
one  and  the  sympathetic  friend  with  the  other.  Many 
young  men  were  thus  won  for  Christ  and  became  His 
heralds.  Many  of  his  sons  in  the  ministry  are  scattered 
over  the  country,  and  they  acknowledge  him  as  their 
guide  and  counselor  in  the  beginning  of  life.  When  he 
took  up  city  pastoral  work  his  heart  went  out  to  the 
masses  that  he  longed  to  uplift  and  enlighten.  This  was 
true,  although  his  ministry  began  when  social  Christianity 
was  not  so  much  practiced  and  taught  as  it  is  now.  He 
proclaimed  the  social  aspect  of  the  gospel,  and  was 
among  the  first  to  apply,  from  the  pulpit,  the  principles 
of  the  Christian  religion  to  all  matters  which  concern 
the  welfare  of  humanity,  and  he  gave  himself  earnestly 
to  any  cause  which  had  such  a  purpose  in  view.  He  fol- 
lowed his  star  and  proclaimed  aloud  a  gospel  for  the 
healing  of  the  nations.  He  believed  he  was  following  in 
the  footsteps  of  his  Master,  who  said:  "He  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor;  He  has 
sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives,  and  recover- 
ing of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord." 
This  passage  bore  to  him  a  meaning  which  embraced  the 
physical  as  well  as  the  spiritual  life.  The  Saviour,  he 
thought,  exemplified  this  in  his  life  on  earth — "That  they 
might  have  life,  and  have  it  more  abundantly" — the  life 
abundant  here  and  hereafter. 


JOHN  POLLARD  139 

In  1905,  while  preaching  on  a  Sunday  morning,  he 
was  stricken  with  paralysis,  and  was  soon  compelled  to 
lay  aside  active  service.  From  that  time  until  his  death, 
July  14,  1911,  he  made  his  home  in  Richmond,  where  the 
larger  part  of  his  active  life  had  been  spent,  and  where 
there  were  hosts  of  friends  to  love  and  honor  him  in  his 
last  years  of  ill  health.  Sorrows  and  joys  were  strangely 
mixed  in  his  life,  but  the  greatest  sorrow  that  came  was 
the  one  that  took  him  from  active  service,  for  his  was 
an  earnest  nature,  to  whom  work  and  service  to  others 
was  a  joy.  In  these  last  years  of  waiting  his  patience  and 
faith  were  wonderfully  displayed,  and  have  left  a  herit- 
age to  those  who  love  him. 

His  was  an  active  career,  for  his  heart  and  hand  were 
ever  ready  for  the  uplift  of  the  fallen,  the  enlightenment 
of  the  masses,  and  for  the  removal  of  barriers  that  hin- 
dered the  progress  of  religion  and  morality.  It  was 
given  to  him  to  see  more  clearly  than  some  others  the 
truth,  and  he  was  always  in  the  advance  guard  for  its 
defense.  When  others  were  holding  back  and  fearing, 
he  boldly  attacked  the  strongholds  cf  evil  and  was  at  the 
front  defending  the  banner  of  truth.  He  lived  to  see  the 
final  triumph  of  many  causes  which  he  was  first  to 
espouse  and  labor  for.  He  was  the  author  of  the  docu- 
ment which  petitioned  the  Legislature  to  adopt  the  anti- 
dueling  act,  and  was  also  a  pioneer  in  the  cause  of  local 
option  when  it  was  considered  almost  fanatical  even  to 
think  of  legislation  in  regard  to  the  liquor  traffic.  He 
was  able  and  courageous  in  debate  when  aroused  on  any 
question,  but  while  firm  in  conviction,  he  was  large  in 
sympathy  and  genial  in  social  bearing.  His  was  a  life 
both  strong  in  love  and  fruitful  in  service,  and  he  lives 
still  in  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  friends,  who  honor 
him  for  the  strength  and  purity  of  his  earthly  career. 


140         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

His  children  are  Mary  Ellen  (Mrs.  G.  Harvey  Clarke), 
Rev.  Dr.  E.  B.  Pollard,  Juliet  Jeffries  (Mrs.  J.  W. 
Willis),  Bessie  Gray  (Mrs.  Millard  F.  Cox),  Hon.  John 
Garland  Pollard,  Annie  Maud  (Mrs.  Robert  Lee  Tur- 
man),  Lalla  Rookh  (Mrs.  Otho  P.  Smoot),  and  Grace 
Nelson  (Mrs.  R.  H.  McCaslin). 


ALONZA  CHURCH  BARRON 

1841-1905 

While  Georgia  was  the  birthplace  of  Rev.  Alonza 
Church  Barron,  and  while  under  the  soil  of  North  Caro- 
lina his  ashes  rest,  Virginia  gave  him  his  wife  and  had 
him  within  her  borders  for  a  number  of  years  as  a  pastor. 
Less  than  two  years  after  his  birth,  which  took  place  at 
Columbus,  May  3,  1841,  his  mother  was  left  a  widow. 
Her  second  husband  proved  unkind  to  her  children,  and 
so  at  the  early  age  of  nine  Alonza  was  apprenticed  to  a 
printer.  By  reason  of  a  precocious  mind  and  a  retentive 
memory  he  was  already  far  more  advanced  in  his  studies 
than  are  most  boys  at  his  age.  When  he  was  a  youth 
of  fifteen  a  gentleman  of  means  was  so  attracted  to  him 
by  reason  of  his  intelligence  and  his  affable  manners  that 
he  begged  for  the  privilege  of  educating  him  for  the 
Episcopal  ministry.  Although  he  was  thus  coveted  for 
the  Episcopalian  ministry,  and  although  he  was  named 
after  a  Presbyterian  minister,  nevertheless  he  became, 
during  his  college  course,  with  the  consent  of  his  mother 
and  his  patron,  a  Baptist,  and  in  due  time  a  Baptist  minis- 
ter. He  was  graduated  at  Howard  College,  Alabama, 
which  institution,  some  years  later,  conferred  upon  him, 
almost  at  the  same  moment  that  he  was  receiving  the  same 
honor  from  Richmond  College,  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity.  The  Civil  War  found  him  a  faithful  soldier  in 
the  Southern  Army,  where  he  contracted  a  disease  which 
made  him  more  or  less  of  an  invalid  all  the  remainder  of 
his  life.  In  the  last  two  years  of  the  War  he  edited  a 
paper  in  Atlanta,  Ga.  After  some  preparation  he 
entered  the  ministry,  and  in  1868  became  the  pastor  of 

141 


142         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

the  Baptist  Church  of  Tuskegee,  Ala.,  from  which  town 
he  moved,  in  1870,  to  Montgomery,  in  the  same  State,  to 
become  the  pastor  of  the  Second  Church  of  that  city. 
His  next  charge  was  in  Lexington,  Va.,  one  of  the  col- 
lege towns  of  the  Old  Dominion,  where  he  labored  for 
some  three  years.  In  1876  he  became  pastor  of  the  Cul- 
peper  Court  House  Church,  where  he  remained  some 
seven  years.  His  last  pastorate  in  Virginia,  at  Berry- 
ville,  lasted  about  two  years,  and  from  this  town  he  went, 
in  1883,  to  Baltimore.  In  this  city  his  work  was  of  a 
twofold  nature,  for  he  was  pastor  of  the  Fulton  Avenue 
Baptist  Church  and  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Baltimore 
Baptist.  In  1896  he  ended  his  connection  with  the  Balti- 
more Baptist  and  gave  himself,  once  more,  fully  to  the 
work  of  preaching.  The  church  to  which  he  now  went, 
the  Tryon  Street  Baptist  Church,  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  saw 
his  earthly  labors  end  and  wept  over  his  grave.  On 
January  6,  1873,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Addie  V. 
Mason,  of  Staunton,  Va.,  and  in  Charlotte,  in  what  he 
thought  was  the  "prettiest  parsonage  in  the  State,"  he 
celebrated,  with  his  wife,  the  thirteenth  anniversary  of 
their  union.  While  in  Charlotte  he  heard  Dr.  Moses  D. 
Hoge,  the  distinguished  Presbyterian  divine,  in  a  public 
address,  give  to  the  Baptists  the  credit  of  beginning  the 
missionary  movement,  and,  during  this  pastorate,  after 
a  visit  of  a  month  to  Philadelphia,  upon  his  return  bap- 
tized Rev.  Wm.  L.  Walker,  a  Presbyterian  minister  of 
Piedmont,  S.  C.  Dr.  Barron  was  very  much  beloved  by 
all  the  people  of  the  city  of  Charlotte,  being  called  "The 
Shepherd  of  the  City."  All  classes  and  denominations 
looked  to  him  in  their  hours  of  sorrow  and  trial,  and 
when  his  death  came,  all  the  stores  of  the  city  were  closed 
at  the  hour  of  the  funeral  and  the  bells  of  all  the  churches 
were  tolled.  The  Supreme  Court  of  North  Carolina, 
which  was  in  session  in  Charlotte  at  that  time,  took  a 


ALONZA  CHURCH  BARRON  143 

recess,  entering  on  its  record  this  statement:  "We 
adjourned  at  this  hour  that  we  might  attend,  in  a  body, 
the  funeral  of  a  good  man,  Dr.  A.  C.  Barron."  Not  a 
single  member  of  the  Court  was  a  Baptist.  Dr.  Barron 
died  at  the  home  of  his  oldest  daughter,  Mrs.  W.  C. 
Graves,  Somerset,  Va.,  August  19,  1905.  This  sketch 
ought  not  to  close  without  distinct  reference  to  the  genial 
spirit  and  deep  piety  of  this  man  of  God.  A  man  may 
be  good,  but  unless  he  has  a  winsome  type  of  goodness 
he  is  not  apt  to  receive  such  tokens  of  esteem  as  those 
that  Charlotte  gave  to  Dr.  Barron.  The  secret  springs 
of  his  life  were  deep,  and  "come  upon  him  when  you 
would  and  you  would  find  him  reading  his  Bible  or  upon 
his  knees  in  prayer."  In  view  of  this  side  of  his  life  and 
of  the  fact  that  he  had  magnetism  as  a  speaker,  it  is  not 
to  be  wondered  that  he  had  power  in  evangelistic  work. 


JOHN  THOMPSON  RANDOLPH 
1825-1905 

"Verdant  Lawn,"  a  beautiful  country  home  some  three 
miles  from  Charlottesville,  and  not  far  from  Carter's 
Mountain,  was  for  his  whole  married  life,  a  period  of 
over  fifty  years,  the  home  of  Rev.  John  Thompson  Ran- 
dolph. He  and  his  wife,  who  was  Miss  Annie  M.  Parish, 
the  only  daughter  of  Rev.  William  P.  Parish,  kept  up  the 
traditions  which  had  made  this  country-seat  famous  for 
hospitality  and  the  scene  of  blessed  fellowship  among 
many  of  the  most  choice  spirits  of  Virginia  Baptists.  It 
is  not  often  the  case  with  preachers  that  they  never,  for 
over  half  a  century,  change  their  home,  but  so  it  was 
with  Mr.  Randolph.  His  entrance  into  the  ministry  was 
brought  about  through  the  development  of  his  gifts  as 
he  preached  to  the  colored  people,  who  belonged,  in  large 
numbers,  to  the  Charlottesville  Baptist  Church.  The 
churches  to  which  he  ministered,  all  in  the  Albemarle 
Association,  Liberty,  Effort,  Bethany,  Mt.  Eagle,  B.  M., 
and  Lime  Stone,  were  within  striking  distance  of  his 
home.  In  addition  to  his  work  at  these  churches,  for 
many  years,  on  fifth  Sundays,  he  preached  in  the 
meeting-house  at  Milton,  "one  of  the  oldest  places  in 
Albemarle  County,  and  at  one  time  a  rival  of  Charlottes- 
ville for  the  location  of  the  University  of  Virginia." 
The  salaries  that  his  churches  paid  him  were  distinctly 
small,  but  in  his  latter  years,  when  his  health  failed, 
many  of  those  to  whom  he  had  ministered  in  spiritual 
things  shared  with  him  their  abundance  in  temporal 
things. 

He  was  born  in  Middlebrook,  Augusta  County,  Vir- 
ginia, in  March,  1825,  his  parents  being  John  Randolph 

144 


JOHN  THOMPSON  RANDOLPH  145 

and  Mary  Frazier.  He  was  a  grandson  of  Thompson 
Randolph  and  a  great-grandson  of  Lieutenant  John  Ran- 
dolph and  Margaret  Thompson.  His  father  was  a  man 
of  affairs  and  of  considerable  wealth.  It  is  said  that  he 
was  related  to  the  famous  John  Randolph  "of  Roanoke"  : 
certainly  he  came  of  good  stock,  and  there  was  "a 
decided  streak  of  the  Cavalier  in  his  make-up."  While 
not  without  his  peculiarities  and  eccentricities,  he  was 
gentle,  easy  of  approach,  and  open  to  advice.  He  was 
a  student  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  for  his  alma- 
mater  to  the  end  of  his  life  he  had  a  most  ardent  affec- 
tion, and  enjoyed  attending  from  year  to  year  the  Com- 
mencement exercises,  not  omitting  the  alumni  banquet, 
which  function  appealed  to  his  genial  and  social  nature. 
The  excellent  library  of  his  father-in-law,  which  came  to 
him,  grew  under  his  hands  and  was  always  a  joy  to  him. 
His  ordination  to  the  ministry  took  place  in  1862,  and, 
remembering  his  bent  of  mind  and  his  antecedents,  it  is 
not  surprising  that  his  sermons  were  often  marked  by 
excellent  thought ;  indeed,  so  good  a  judge  as  Prof. 
H.  H.  Harris  said  that  he  had  heard  Mr.  Randolph 
preach  sermons  the  subject  matter  of  which  would  have 
done  credit  to  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus.  His  early  training 
in  the  management  of  business  matters  influenced  all  his 
subsequent  life,  helping  him,  doubtless,  to  be  the  enthusi- 
astic treasurer  for  years  of  the  Albemarle  Association, 
never  absent  from  its  sessions,  and  a  faithful  member 
of  the  Board  of  Visitors  of  the  Miller  Manual  Labor 
School  of  Albemarle  County.  He  was  half  owner,  with 
his  cousin,  Wm.  A.  Frazier  of  Staunton,  of  the  Rock- 
bridge  Alum  Springs. 

His  last  years  were  marked  by  suffering  and  distress. 
The  wife  of  his  youth  preceded  him  by  two  years  to  the 
grave.  The  old  homestead  was  sold  and  he  moved  to 


10 


146         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Charlottesville  to  live  with  one  of  his  sons.  At  length, 
in  his  eighty-first  year,  on  Sunday,  November  26,  1905, 
in  the  home  of  his  son,  Thos.  F.  Randolph,  while  the 
congregation  he  had  so  long  loved  so  well  was  gathering 
for  the  evening  worship,  he  was  called  away  to  the  con- 
gregation that  never  breaks  up.  Besides  the  son  just 
mentioned  he  was  survived  by  these  children :  Dr.  John 
Randolph,  Mr.  Walter  Randolph.  Another  son,  Dr. 
W.  P.  F.  Randolph,  died  before  his  father. 


JOSEPH  RYLAND  MURDOCH 
1873-1906 

Not  until  that  day  when  we  shall  read  the  meaning 
of  our  tears  will  it  be  given  us  to  understand  why  young 
men  of  splendid  promise  are  laid  low  by  the  hand  of 
death.  Such  a  young  man  was  Rev.  Joseph  Ryland 
Murdoch.  He  was  born  in  Maryland,  April  10,  1873, 
and  died  at  Ontario,  Cal.,  January  5,  1906.  His  early 
life  was  spent  in  King  and  Queen  County,  Virginia,  and 
at  Bruington  Church,  in  this  county,  he  was  baptized 
when  he  was  thirteen  years  of  age,  on  August  28,  1896, 
and  when  twenty-four  ordained.  On  this  latter  occa- 
sion the  presbytery  was  made  up  of  the  following  minis- 
ters: Dr.  Charles  H.  Ryland,  Dr.  H.  A.  Bagby,  Dr.  B. 
Cabell  Hening,  Rev.  J.  W.  Ryland,  Rev.  Alexander 
Fleet,  and  Dr.  F.  B.  Beale.  Before  this  he  had  studied 
for  two  years  at  Richmond  College  and  then  at  Crozer 
Theological  Seminary.  Rev.  W.  B.  Dulin,  who  was  his 
roommate  both  sessions  at  Richmond  College,  says  of 
him :  "He  was  so  thoughtful  of  others'  interests  and  so 
diligent  in  serving  others  that  his  influence  was  felt  in 
the  classroom,  on  the  campus,  in  the  dining-hall,  and 
wherever  he  went."  On  June  12,  1901,  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Anna  B.  Gilchrist,  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.  After 
a  pastorate  of  two  years  at  Berlin,  N.  J.,  and  another 
of  the  same  duration  at  Kennet  Square,  Pa.,  he  took 
charge  of  the  church  at  Winchester,  Va.  Under  his  care 
this  church  prospered  greatly,  especially  along  the  line  of 
missionary  growth,  and  when,  after  two  years,  his  fail- 
ing health  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  resign,  the  flock 
was  sorely  grieved.  A  handsome  parsonage  had  been 

147 


148         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

built,  and  the  pastor's  wife,  faithful  and  winning,  had 
endeared  herself  to  all  by  her  labors  of  love.  He  was 
pastor  at  La  Junta,  Colo.,  for  one  year,  and  then  the 
end  came.  His  life  was  "marked  by  strong  character- 
istics— integrity  and  singleness  of  purpose;  great  indus- 
try combined  with  cheerful  courage;  helpfulness  with 
intense  concern  for  the  Master's  work;  all  softened  by 
resignation  to  his  Father's  will  and  luminous  with  the 
faith  and  hope  of  the  gospel." 


LODOWIC  RALPH  MILBOURNE* 

1855-1906 

It  was  somewhere  about  1831  that  a  majority  of  the 
ministers  of  the  Accomac  Association  adopted  the  high- 
est Calvinistic  doctrines  and  taught  and  preached  them 
whenever  occasion  permitted,  and  instead  of  exhorting 
sinners  to  repentance,  some  of  the  more  advanced,  we  are 
told,  absolutely  refused  to  preach  the  gospel  to  sinners, 
and  opposed  all  missionary  efforts.  Among  the  leading 
ministers  who  opposed  this  higher  Calvinism  and  anti- 
missionary  spirit  was  the  Rev.  Levin  Dix.  He,  with 
Rev.  William  Laws,  laid  the  foundation  for  the  present 
prosperity  and  progress  of  the  Baptists  on  the  Eastern 
Shore  of  Virginia. 

Father  Dix,  as  he  was  lovingly  called  in  those  days  of 
battle  and  struggle  for  the  truth,  had  two  children,  a 
son,  who  walked  in  his  father's  footsteps  and  became  a 
minister  of  the  gospel,  useful  and  blessed  in  his  day;  a 
daughter,  named  Amory,  who  married  Mr.  James  Mil- 
bourne,  of  Somerset  County,  Maryland.  Lodowic  Ralph 
Milbourne,  the  child  of  this  marriage,  was  born  January 
18,  1855.  Amory  Milbourne,  in  her  devout  Christian 
character  and  beautiful  life,  had  the  mantle  of  her  father 
to  fall  on  her.  At  her  child's  birth  she  consecrated  him 
to  Christ  and  prayed  that  he  might  become  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel  like  his  grandfather  and  his  uncle.  Mrs. 
Milbourne  died  when  her  child  was  very  young.  The 
old  colored  woman,  who  was  Mr.  Milbourne's  house- 
keeper for  a  long  time  after  his  wife's  death,  loved  God 

*Save  for  slight  omissions  this  is  as  it  was  written  by  Dr.  F.  R. 
Boston. 

149 


150         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

and  often  spoke  to  the  little  boy  about  his  sainted  mother 
and  her  prayers  for  him  that  he  might  become  a  preacher 
of  Christ. 

Dr.  O.  F.  Flippo  was  pastor  of  the  Rehoboth  Baptist 
Church  which  the  family  attended.  He  says,  knowing 
the  lad  well  through  these  years,  he  never  knew  anything 
of  him  but  what  was  pure  and  good.  One  who  had  been 
very  intimate  with  him  writes :  "I  have  often  marveled 
at  the  flowering  of  such  a  character  and  life,  but  I  sup- 
pose heredity  was  strong  and  God  meant  that  the  traits 
of  the  Elder  Levin  Dix  and  the  pure  piety  of  his 
daughter,  Amory,  should  reappear  to  bless  another 
generation  in  Lodowic  Ralph  Milbourne." 

During  the  year  of  1873,  while  Rev.  L.  D.  Paulding 
was  pastor  of  the  Rehoboth  Baptist  Church,  Rev.  James 
Nelson,  D.  D.,  now  President  of  the  Woman's  College  of 
Richmond,  helped  in  a  meeting  of  days.  Among  the 
converts  of  that  meeting  was  young  Milbourne.  From 
the  very  beginning  of  his  Christian  life  he  consecrated 
himself  to  the  work  of  the  church.  He  was  soon  made 
superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school.  In  this  capacity, 
and  in  many  other  ways,  he  served  his  church  faithfully 
until  he  went  to  the  Crozer  Theological  Seminary  to  pre- 
pare himself  for  the  gospel  ministry.  This  was  in  1878. 
He  was  graduated  in  1881. 

I  was  the  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Hampton, 
and  on  my  recommendation  the  State  Mission  Board 
called  Brother  Milbourne  to  take  charge  of  the  work  in 
Newport  News.  Last  summer  I  visited  the  First  Baptist 
Church,  of  Newport  News.  As  I  looked  over  that  splen- 
did building  I  went  back  in  memory  to  the  past,  the 
coming  of  Milbourne  and  his  young  wife.  The  little  red 
building  in  which  he  commenced  to  preach  was  a  union 
chapel  for  all  denominations.  His  ordination  was  at  the 
old  Denbeigh  Church,  Warwick  County,  July  14,  1881, 
Dr.  R.  W.  Cridlin,  then  of  Portsmouth,  taking  part,  and 
I  delivering  the  charge  to  the  candidate;  then  came 


LODOWIC  RALPH  MILBOURNE          151 

the  organization  of  this  First  Baptist  Church,  and  then 
the  crushing  sorrow  in  the  death  of  his  young  wife.  As 
I  looked  at  this  great  church  and  its  grand  work  for  God, 
and  the  other  Baptist  churches  of  the  city  growing  and 
prosperous,  I  said  to  myself :  "All  this  mighty  work  was 
started  by  my  friend  and  brother,  L.  R.  Milbourne. 
Does  not  this  illustrate  that  great  saying  of  the  Apostle 
John,  'And  their  works  do  follow  them'?" 

It  was  in  1884  that  the  Luray  Baptist  Church  called 
him  to  be  their  pastor.  This  they  did  without  seeing  and 
hearing  him.  He  entered  upon  his  labors  with  them  in 
April  and  continued  until  September,  1889.  During  this 
time  he  was  pastor  of  the  young  church  at  Marksville, 
now  Stanley,  near  Luray,  and  he  also  organized  the 
church  at  Rileyville,  besides  doing  a  great  deal  of  State 
Mission  work  in  the  country  around.  These  two  young 
churches  were  especially  dear  to  him.  He  frequently 
revisited  them  and  held  meetings,  and  was  largely  instru- 
mental in  bringing  about  a  change  of  location  which  was 
of  vital  importance  to  Stanley.  Brother  Milbourne  was 
greatly  blessed  in  his  pastorate  at  Luray.  His  ministry 
was  marked  by  the  erection  of  practically  a  new  church 
building  and  still  more  by  the  greatest  revival  ever 
known  in  that  region,  when  about  one  hundred  were 
added  to  his  church  and  the  whole  country  was  visited 
by  a  great  religious  awakening.  It  is  said  that  in  all 
Page  County  there  is  no  name  more  sincerely  loved  than 
his,  and  it  is  fitting  that  his  last  earthly  resting  place 
should  be  there  in  the  land  he  loved. 

While  pastor  at  Luray  he  married  Miss  Virginia  A. 
Strickler,  a  highly  educated  and  cultured  lady,  who  made 
him  a  noble  and  faithful  wife,  and  built  again  a  home 
for  him,  which  had  been  broken  by  death,  at  Newport 
News.  Five  sons  were  the  fruit  of  this  happy  marriage. 
At  the  time  of  this  writing  Mrs.  Milbourne  is  a  teacher 
in  the  Charles  Town  Graded  and  High  School.  The 


152         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

sons  are :  Ralph  Maclaren  Milbourne,  Lodowic  James 
Milbourne,  Harvey  Lee  Milbourne,  Drummond  Fairfax 
Milbourne,  and  Roger  Williams  Milbourne. 

In  1889  he  became  pastor  at  Rockville  and  Barnesville, 
Md.,  and  later  of  Upper  Seneca  Church.  He  finally 
became  pastor  of  Rockville  alone.  But  he  was  always  a 
State  missionary,  and  very  soon  some  of  his  labors 
resulted  in  the  formation  of  Travilah  Baptist  Church, 
1894.  He  erected  a  building  for  this  church,  also  for 
Derwood  mission,  a  point  near  Rockville,  where  he  sus- 
tained preaching,  prayer-meeting,  and  Sunday-school 
services.  Here,  as  everywhere,  his  ministry  was  crowded 
with  labors.  Among  those  whom  he  baptized  at  Rock- 
ville was  Miss  Elizabeth  Haney,  now  a  missionary  in 
San  Luis  Potosi,  Mexico.  Here,  too,  he  greatly  endeared 
himself  to  his  churches  and  many  friends.  In  December, 
1897,  he  became  pastor  at  Charles  Town,  W.  Va.  His 
pastorate  here  was  marked  by  solid  success,  steady 
growth  of  membership,  and  perfect  organization.  The 
finances  are  no  longer  a  problem.  The  missionary  con- 
tributions increased  from  less  than  one  hundred  dollars 
a  year  to  a  reliable  average  of  over  three  hundred 
dollars.  He  engineered  the  War  claim  to  a  successful 
issue.  A  new  pipe  organ  has  been  put  in,  and  the  interior 
of  the  church  and  Sunday-school  room  has  been  remod- 
eled. His  church  showed  their  high  appreciation  of  his 
service  by  their  loving  and  faithful  devotion  to  him  in 
his  long  sickness  and  finally  at  his  death,  which  took 
place  February  8,  1906. 

Brother  Milbourne  was  closely  identified  with  the 
work  of  the  Shenandoah  Association.  He  was  clerk  for 
four  years,  then  president  for  two.  His  influence 
widened  steadily,  and  many  avenues  of  interest  were 
quickened  by  the  throb  of  his  earnest  and  vigorous  per- 
sonality. It  seemed  that  his  life  grew  ever  more  strenu- 
ous; so  far  from  shrinking,  he  invited  new  duties  and 


LODOWIC  RALPH  MILBOURNE          153 

labors.  When  nature  gave  the  signal  of  distress  and 
friends  and  physicians  urged  rest,  still  the  eager  spirit 
urged  him  on  as  if  with  resistless  inner  force.  Of  his 
whole  life  and  character  the  dominant  notes  were  joy, 
hope,  and  love.  The  joy  of  the  Lord  was  indeed  his 
strength.  He  was  an  optimist  under  all  circumstances. 
He  lavished  love,  not  only  on  his  nearest,  but  also  upon 
a  large  number  of  friends,  whom  he  delighted  to  serve, 
and  upon  the  whole  Christian  brotherhood.  The  key- 
note of  his  ministry  was  faithfulness.  One  friend  speaks 
of  his  purity,  another  of  his  sincerity,  one  paper  of  the 
clearness  and  force  of  his  convictions.  All  speak  of  his 
geniality. 

His  intellectual  traits  are  not  overlooked  in  dwelling 
upon  his  moral  and  social  qualities.  Dr.  Hopkins,  the 
pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Charles  Town, 
paid  a  public  tribute  to  his  ability  as  a  thinker,  declaring 
that  "his  clear  grasp  of  theological  truth  gave  force, 
point,  and  power  to  his  preaching.''  His  mind  acted 
with  great  quickness  and  precision.  Brother  Milbourne 
longed  for  symmetrical  development,  and  wished  his 
words  to  be  just  the  expression  of  his  manhood  and  to 
carry  just  the  force  of  his  everyday  personality.  Elo- 
quence as  such  he  did  not  strive  for.  It  was  in  dealing 
with  men  and  in  bringing  things  to  pass  that  his  strength 
was  most  apparent.  He  had  great  development  in  public 
usefulness  in  these  last  years.  He  was  modest  and 
unselfish.  He  carried  out  the  injunction,  "in  honor 
preferring  one  another."  In  consequence  of  all  these 
traits  he  was  signally  rich  in  friends.  Every  field  that 
he  served  was  full  of  them,  and  Charles  Town,  which 
knew  him  last,  and  perhaps  best  of  all,  honored  him  to 
a  man.  The  loyal  devotion  of  his  church  is  a  striking 
tribute.  A  monument  will  soon  stand  over  his  grave,  and 
upon  it  will  be  inscribed  just  this :  "A  minister  of 
Christ,  faithful  and  well  beloved." 

,xr  w  F.  R.  Boston. 

Warrenton,  Va. 


WADE  BICKERS  BROWN 
1871-1906 

In  Culpeper  County,  Virginia,  Rev.  Wade  Bickers 
Brown  was  born  April  28,  1871,  his  parents  being  James 
R.  Brown  and  Sarah  Elizabeth  Bickers.  "As  a  boy  he 
was  quiet,  studious,  and  prompt  in  the  performance  of 
every  duty,"  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  was  baptized  into 
the  fellowship  of  Bethel  Church,  Culpeper  County,  by 
Rev.  T.  F.  Grimsley.  After  his  public-school  days  he 
was  a  student,  first  at  Richmond  College  and  then,  much 
later,  at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary, 
Louisville.  While  at  the  former  institution  he  gave  his 
vacations  to  colporteur  work  in  the  Shenandoah  Associa- 
tion, preaching  as  occasion  offered.  In  1892  he  was 
called  to  a  field  in  the  Middle  District,  the  churches  being 
Matoaca  and  Gill's  Grove.  Later  he  was  pastor  of 
Woodlawn  (Middle  District  Association)  and  Ettrick 
(Portsmouth  Association).  After  some  years  in  these 
fields  and  two  as  pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church, 
Newport  News,  he  spent  two  years  in  study  at  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Louisville. 
During  his  vacations  he  did  supply  work  in  North  and 
South  Dakota,  and,  being  impressed  with  the  need  there 
was  in  the  Northwest  of  Protestant  ministers,  decided  to 
give  his  life  to  that  section  of  our  country.  In  accord 
with  this  resolve  he  was  first  pastor  at  Bangor,  Wis., 
where  he  did  a  lasting  work.  His  next  pastorate  was  at 
Hamilton,  N.  Dak.  Subsequently  he  had  charge  of  the 
Central  Baptist  Church,  Green  Bay,  Wis.,  and  it  was 
while  he  was  here  that  he  was  married,  on  July  24, 
1901,  to  Miss  Mary  Elizabeth  Bruce,  daughter  of  the 

154 


WADE  BICKERS  BROWN  155 

late  Rev.  Silas  Bruce,  of  Culpeper  County,  Virginia. 
"The  work  in  the  Northwest  is  slow  and  discouraging. 
At  that  time  there  were  not  more  than  20,000  Baptists 
in  Wisconsin.  There  is  an  unceasing  unrest  and  moving, 
so  that  churches  are  continually  going  out  of  existence. 
These  difficulties  helped  to  strengthen  and  develop 
him.  ...  He  was  a  hard  student,  and  his  sermons 
improved  with  each  year."  Perhaps  the  climate  was  too 
severe  for  him ;  at  any  rate  his  health  failed  and  he  was 
obliged  to  seek  a  place  where  the  weather  was  less  rigor- 
ous and  where  he  could  be  much  out  of  doors.  He 
accepted,  in  December,  1904,  a  call  to  a  field  in  the 
Lebanon  Association,  in  Southwest  Virginia,  made  up 
of  the  following  churches :  Chilhowie,  Riverside,  Glade 
Spring,  and  Friendship.  It  was,  however,  too  late  to 
save  his  life,  and  after  a  year  he  passed  away,  his  death 
taking  place  on  February  28,  1906,  at  his  father's  home 
in  Culpeper  County.  His  wife  and  one  child,  Margaret 
Bruce  Brown,  survived  him.  The  funeral  service  was 
conducted  by  his  old  pastor,  Rev.  T.  F.  Grimsley.  Mr. 
M.  M.  Morriss,  of  Glade  Spring,  wrote  as  follows  about 
Mr.  Brown:  "...  His  brief  life  was  crowded 
with  unselfish  work ;  his  convictions,  as  to  the  value  of 
time,  sent  him  forward  to  his  self-imposed  tasks  with  an 
impetuosity  unexampled  in  the  observations  of  this  writer. 
The  success  of  his  ministry  in  this  Association  is  a 
demonstration  of  the  wisdom  of  his  methods  and  the 
sincerity  of  his  purpose." 


AUSTIN  EVERETT  OWEN 
1837-1906 

Austin  Everett  Owen  came  of  Welsh  and  French 
stock.  These  elements  were  splendidly  blended,  and 
manifested  themselves  in  a  personality  striking  and 
strong.  The  Welsh  are  the  folk  who  have  never  been 
subdued.  They  retreated  to  the  high  hills  and  have 
remained  unconquered,  rugged,  independent,  and  staunch. 
The  French  are  suave  and  quick-passioned  and  lovers  of 
art.  Dr.  Owen's  mother  was  of  French  Huguenot  stock 
that  came  to  Virginia  in  1685.  His  father  was  of  the 
Welsh  strain  that  had  come  to  Powhatan  County  even 
sooner.  Dr.  Owen  had  the  original  ruggedness  of  his 
father's  family  and  all  of  the  refined  culture  of  the 
French  strain.  He  was  at  once  strong  yet  gentle,  fiery 
yet  tender,  daring  yet  shrinking,  severe  yet  lenient, 
jagged  yet  smooth,  a  flaming,  burning,  consuming 
evangel  of  the  gospel,  while  at  the  same  time  he  was  a 
wooing  singer  of  the  old,  old  love  story  of  the  cross. 
These  elements  were  so  commingled  in  him  that  men 
were  pleased  to  call  him  God's  Christian  gentleman. 

He  was  born  on  a  farm  in  Powhatan  County,  Septem- 
ber 27,  1837.  He  lived  the  life  of  a  poor  country  lad, 
with  little  opportunity  for  learning  except  as  he  touched 
the  country  schoolmaster  and  the  houses  of  cultured 
gentlemen.  He  was  converted  at  nineteen,  of  which 
event  he  himself  says :  "I  was  fixed  in  the  opinion  that 
I  would  soon  sink  into  hell,  but  I  said  I  would  serve  the 
Lord  because  it  was  right.  Then  in  the  western  heavens 
I  saw  a  black  cloud;  soon  it  was  torn  in  two;  a  white 
shaft  ran  down  its  bosom,  as  sometimes  we  see  a  streak 

156 


AUSTIN  EVERETT  OWEN  157 

of  lightning  split  the  storm  cloud.  The  two  clouds 
looked  like  black  mantles  fringed  with  white  balls ;  then 
a  hand,  beautiful  in  its  whiteness,  separated  the  edges 
and  a  face  as  white  as  the  light  came  through  the  open- 
ing. That  vision  filled  me  with  rapture,  and  I  broke  into 
laughter.  That  surpassingly  glorious  face  of  the  Saviour 
of  men  remained  but  a  few  seconds,  but  I  saw  it;  it 
thrilled  me  with  rapture,  it  filled  me  with  delight.  .  .  . 
Changes  have  come  to  me.  I  have  stood  before  the 
public  forty-seven  years  telling  'the  story  of  Jesus  and 
his  love.'  I  have  lived  in  the  smiles  of  friends  and  have 
borne  the  frowns  of  foes,  but  that  face  is  as  distinctly 
before  me  now  as  when  I  first  beheld  it." 

He  went  to  Richmond  and  became  a  house  painter. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  Leigh  Street  Baptist  Church. 
He  showed  to  his  brethren  such  marked  gifts  that  they 
suggested  that  he  enter  Richmond  College  as  a  minis- 
terial student  and  a  beneficiary  of  the  Education  Board 
of  Virginia.  There  came  upon  him  the  overwhelming 
conviction  that  he  ought  to  preach,  and  he  entered  college 
the  next  year.  More  than  once  he  referred  to  his  first 
appearance  on  the  campus  of  the  college.  With  his  small 
trunk  in  his  hands  he  struggled  up  the  long  walk  amid 
the  derisive  jeers  of  the  better-to-do  students.  Cha- 
grined and  outraged  and  keenly  hurt  by  their  taunts,  the 
young  man  of  scarce  twenty  years  set  his  heart  upon  the 
high  honors  of  the  college,  and  twenty  years  after  this 
first  awkward  entrance  he  was  elected  one  of  its  trustees, 
and  remained  in  this  relationship  to  Richmond  College 
until  his  death.  Dr.  Owen  was  a  student  of  the  college 
from  1857  until  1861,  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  War. 
As  he  left  the  college  building,  among  the  last  to  leave 
the  dormitory,  already  the  dormitories  were  occupied  by 
the  Lynchburg  Artillery.  During  the  summer  months 
of  these  college  days  he  led  the  life  of  a  colporteur  for 


158         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

the  distribution  of  tracts  and  Baptist  literature.  He  tells 
of  his  treatment  in  the  city  of  Petersburg:  Once 
denounced  from  the  pulpit  of  a  prominent  Methodist 
pastor,  once  driven  out  of  the  house  of  a  gentleman  for 
selling  tracts  on  Baptist  doctrines,  and  once,  having  been 
informed  against  for  questionable  conduct,  he  shows 
that  the  sole  basis  of  all  of  this  vilification  was  but  an 
earnest  and  tireless  and  most  successful  prosecution  of 
the  work  which  he  had  been  sent  to  do  by  the  Board  for 
the  distribution  of  tracts  for  the  Baptists  of  Virginia. 
During  these  colportage  days  he  formed  the  lifelong 
companionship  of  the  brilliant  C.  T.  Bailey,  of  the 
Biblical  Recorder  of  North  Carolina. 

At  the  close  of  the  college  Dr.  Owen  was  called  to 
Reedy  Creek  Church  in  Brunswick  County  and  Malone's 
Church  in  Mecklenburg;  afterwards  to  Wilson's  or  Cut- 
Banks  Church  in  Dinwiddie,  and  to  Fountain's  Creek  in 
Greensville.  These  churches  were  widely  separated,  and 
it  was  necessary  to  ride  from  one  to  the  other  on  horse- 
back. He  left  his  field  for  Richmond  to  be  ordained  by 
the  Leigh  Street  Church.  J.  B.  Solomon,  Robert  Ryland, 
J.  B.  Jeter,  J.  L.  Burrows,  and  Wm.  E.  Hatcher  com- 
posed the  presbytery  that  ordained  him  to  the  ministry 
in  November,  1861.  He  was  married  to  Miss  Henrietta 
Hall,  of  Brunswick  County,  in  December,  1866.  From 
this  union  there  were  born  ten  children.  The  children 
now  living  are:  Richard  Clement  Owen,  Mrs.  M.  P. 
Claud,  Mrs.  John  Freeman,  Mrs.  J.  E.  Button,  Mrs. 
W.  R.  Moore,  and  William  Russell  Owen.  For  ten  years, 
in  fertile  and  wealthy  Brunswick  and  contiguous 
counties,  Dr.  Owen  spent  the  life  of  a  busy  and  success- 
ful country  pastor,  serving  at  various  times,  in  addition 
to  the  four  churches  already  named  above,  Hebron,  New- 
ville,  Hicks  ford,  and  High  Hills.  In  these  ten  years 
new  houses  of  worship  were  built,  the  churches  he  served 


AUSTIN  EVERETT  OWEN  159 

were  greatly  strengthened,  and  the  fame  of  Mr.  Owen 
spread  to  other  parts  of  Virginia,  so  that  in  1871  the 
Court  Street  Baptist  Church  of  Portsmouth,  even  then 
one  of  the  strong  churches  of  the  State,  called  him  unani- 
mously to  the  pastorate. 

It  was  in  this  pastorate  of  twenty-seven  years  that 
Dr.  Owen  came  before  the  Baptists  of  Virginia  as  one 
of  the  prominent  leaders.  When,  as  a  young  man  of 
thirty-four,  Dr.  Owen  assumed  the  pastorate  of  Court 
Street  Church,  his  was  the  only  Baptist  Church  in  Ports- 
mouth, and  there  were  but  three  hundred  Baptists. 
When  he  left  the  pastorate  of  this  church,  in  1898,  there 
were  five  churches  and  about  2,000  Baptists  in  the  city. 
During  this  pastorate  many  honors  came  to  him.  He 
was  elected  to  the  Presidency  of  the  General  Association 
of  Virginia  two  terms,  one  term  Vice-President  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention ;  Doctor  of  Divinity  was 
conferred  upon  him  by  Baylor  University ;  he  was  made 
Grand  Chaplain  of  Virginia  Odd  Fellows ;  was  elected 
Trustee  to  Richmond  College  and  Virginia  Institute,  and 
for  sixteen  years  was  Vice-President  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention 
for  Virginia.  On  resigning  Court  Street  Church,  in 
1898,  he  accepted  the  Presidency  of  Ryland  Institute  for 
Young  Ladies,  at  the  same  time  holding  the  pastorate  of 
the  Grace  Baptist  Church  of  Norfolk.  After  three  years 
he  was  called  back  to  Portsmouth  to  the  South  Street 
Church,  which  was  established  while  he  was  pastor  of  the 
mother  church.  He  became  Editor  of  the  Gospel 
Worker  about  this  time.  In  a  few  years  the  Portsmouth 
Association  called  him  to  be  its  General  Evangelist,  a 
compliment  of  surpassing  beauty,  and  while  in  this  office, 
the  beloved  Bishop,  the  honored  Nestor,  the  recognized 
leader  of  Tidewater  Baptists,  he  died  in  the  strength  of 
his  powers. 


160         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Upon  his  death,  which  occurred  May  4,  1906,  a  spon- 
taneous movement  was  begun  in  Portsmouth,  the  scene 
of  his  life's  labors,  to  erect  a  monument  by  the  entire 
people  of  the  city.  The  movement  sprang  out  of  a 
Methodist  church,  and  the  city  and  his  noble  old  church, 
the  Court  Street,  built  him  a  monument,  an  imposing 
shaft  of  granite,  that  marks  his  grave.  His  lifelong 
wish  was  gratified:  "I  was  glad  to  go  back  to  Ports- 
mouth," he  wrote  just  before  his  death ;  "I  had  long  lived 
among  the  people  and  loved  them  well.  Some  of  my 
children  were  born  in  that  city  and  two  of  them  sleep  in 
its  cemetery,  and  all  that  is  mortal  of  my  frame  will  lie 
on  the  banks  of  the  Elizabeth  and  be  lulled  to  long  repose 
by  the  music  of  its  waves."  He  often  expressed  the  con- 
viction that  his  clear  voice,  a  good  memory,  a  fine  sense 
of  humor,  and  God's  using  an  ordinary  country  boy  made 
him  the  successful  preacher  that  he  was. 

Wm.  Russell  Owen. 


THOMAS  BENTON  SHEPHERD 

1836-1906 

This  sketch  is  little  more  than  the  obituary,  in  slightly 
different  form,  written  by  Dr.  Julian  Broaddus  for  the 
General  Association  Minutes.  That  section  of  Virginia, 
the  Valley  and  northern  Piedmont,  that  was  his  birth- 
place, was,  in  the  main,  the  scene  of  the  labors  of 
Rev.  Thomas  Benton  Shepherd.  Before  his  death  his 
name  had  come  to  be  a  household  word  throughout  the 
Shenandoah  Valley.  He  first  saw  the  light  in  Clarke 
County,  December  23,  1836,  his  parents  being  Park 
Shepherd  and  Elizabeth  Gaunt  Shepherd.  His  father,  a 
man  of  sterling  character  and  large  means,  was  for  many 
years  a  consistent  and  interested  member  of  the  Berry- 
ville  Baptist  Church ;  his  mother,  who  died  when  he  was 
only  four  years  old,  dedicated  him,  in  her  last  hours,  to 
God's  service.  After  this  no  other  vocation  ever  seemed 
to  have  any  attraction  for  him.  In  1852  he  was  baptized 
by  the  Rev.  H.  W.  Dodge  and  became  a  member  of  the 
Berryville  Baptist  Church.  Before  long  he  began  to 
exercise  his  gifts  as  a  public  speaker,  and  in  1854  entered 
Columbian  College.  During  his  life  at  Columbian  he  was 
pastor  of  a  colored  church  in  Alexandria.  From  Wash- 
ington he  went  to  Greenville,  S.  C,  as  a  student  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  being  one  of  the 
twenty-six  men  who  formed  the  student  body  the  first 
year  of  the  Seminary's  existence.  Ten  of  these  men 
were  from  Virginia,  namely :  J.  Wm.  Jones,  C.  H.  Toy, 
C.  H.  Ryland,  R^  B.  Boatwright,  W.  J.  Shipman,  H.  E. 
Hatcher,  W.  C  Caspari,  Jno.  W.  Harrow,  J.  D.  Witt, 
and  T.  B.  Shepherd.  During  the  session  of  the  Potomac 

161 


11 


162         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Association,  in  1858,  at  Berry ville,  Mr.  Shepherd  was 
ordained,  the  presbytery  being  composed  of  these  minis- 
ters: E.  Kingsford,  H.  W.  Dodge,  W.  F.  Broaddus, 
Dr.  Hayes,  and  the  Herndons.  At  the  same  time  Samuel 
Rodgers  and  Richard  Mallory  were  ordained;  the 
former,  a  young  man  of  great  promise,  died  early,  and 
the  latter  drifted  from  one  denomination  to  another,  and, 
if  still  alive,  is  somewhere  in  the  North.  For  something 
like  half  a  century  Mr.  Shepherd  gave  himself  to  the 
ministry  of  the  word.  About  seven  or  eight  years  of 
this  period  were  spent  in  a  pastorate  at  Smithfield,  Va., 
the  churches  served  during  the  remainder  of  the  time 
being  Berryville,  Ketocton,  Bethel,  Rockland,  Charles 
Town,  Marshall,  Millwood,  Waterford,  Pleasant  Vale, 
and  Front  Royal.  Rockland  he  organized  and  served  for 
more  than  twenty  years.  He  passed  to  his  reward  June 
18,  1906. 

"As  a  preacher  he  was  clear,  strong,  persuasive,  and 
pathetic.  The  gospel  fell  from  his  lips  with  no  uncertain 
sound.  He  was  orthodox  from  center  to  circumference, 
and  loved  to  preach  the  gospel  as  did  his  fathers.  He 
had  a  poetical  turn  of  mind,  and  often  charmed  his 
hearers  by  the  beautiful  language  in  which  he  clothed  his 
thoughts.  Like  the  great  apostle,  he  gloried  in  the  cross 
of  Christ  and  the  great  love  of  God  in  the  unspeakable 
gift  of  his  son,  the  dear  Saviour,  and,  in  telling  the  old, 
old  story,  he  pleaded  with  such  tenderness  and  pathos 
that  many  souls  were  won  for  Christ  under  his  ministry. 
In  private  life  he  was  dignified,  courteous,  and  winning 
in  manner;  always  a  welcome  guest  in  the  homes  of  the 
lowly  and  poor,  as  well  as  among  the  cultured  and  refined. 
He  was  eminently  a  spiritually  minded  man, 
and,  as  the  end  approached,  he  seemed  to  have  a  vision 
similar  to  that  of  Stephen,  and  the  light  of  it  lingered  on 
his  face  until  he  quietly  and  peacefully  fell  asleep." 


JAMES  HESS 
1825-1906 

The  New  Lebanon  Association  was  the  field  of  .labor  in 
which  Rev.  James  Hess  spent  his  ministry.  Here  he 
served,  at  one  time  or  another,  and  for  periods  of  differ- 
ent length,  these  churches :  Philadelphia,  Russell's  Fork, 
Thompson's  Creek,  Oak  Grove,  Copper  Ridge.  The  span 
of  his  life  was  from  May  3,  1825,  to  August  4,  1906. 
For  forty  years  he  was  a  professed  follower  of  Christ, 
and  for  thirty-five  years  he  preached  the  story  of  redeem- 
ing love.  His  membership  was  with  the  Oak  Grove 
Church.  He  was  in  the  habit  of  attending  the  New 
Lebanon  Association,  but  he  does  not  seem  to  have 
attended  the  General  Association. 


163 


BENJAMIN  CARTER  JAMES 
1861-1906 

That  disease  which  works  such  havoc  in  the  ranks  of 
men,  typhoid  fever,  and  which  has  seemed  to  be  especi- 
ally fatal  in  our  mountain  sections,  laid  low  the  stalwart 
form  of  Rev.  Benjamin  Carter  James,  when,  in  his  forty- 
fifth  year,  he  seemed  at  the  very  zenith  of  his  power  and 
usefulness.  The  mystery  of  such  a  death  makes  the  more 
evident  the  Christian's  blessedness  in  having  knowledge 
of  God's  merciful  care  of  all  things.  Death  ended  a 
pastorate  at  Keystone  and  Graham  which,  though  only 
about  a  year  and  a  half  in  length,  was  rich  in  blessed 
fruit,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  the  finest  service  of 
this  preacher's  life.  Soon  after  he  reached  this  field, 
ground  had  been  broken  for  a  new  meeting-house,  and  on 
the  second  Sunday  of  April,  1906,  the  new  Keystone 
Church,  "in  all  its  furnishings  easily  the  most  complete 
and  attractive  house  of  worship  in  the  Elkhorn  Valley," 
was  dedicated,  the  whole  debt  being  provided  for  before 
the  services  of  the  day  were  over.  A  parsonage,  to  be 
finished  before  the  end  of  the  year,  was  next  planned. 
The  great  mineral  and  lumber  resources  of  this  section, 
and  the  multitudes  gathered  for  work  in  these  mountains, 
appealed  strongly  to  this  energetic  preacher.  He  had 
given  up  a  successful  business  career,  while  living  for  a 
season  in  Texas,  to  enter  the  ministry,  and  doubtless  his 
mercantile  aptitudes  were  a  help  to  him  as  he  came  into 
touch  with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men  in  the  West 
Virginia  mountains. 

Before  going  to  West  Virginia  Mr.  James  had  been 
pastor  at  Pulaski.  While  there  he  held  a  meeting  at  the 

164 


BENJAMIN  CARTER  JONES  165 

church's  Mt.  Olivet  mission  which  resulted  in  the  bap- 
tism of  nineteen  persons,  seven  of  whom  were  buried 
with  Christ  in  baptism  in  a  running  stream  (the  baptis- 
tery was  undergoing  repairs),  a  new  scene,  the  pastor 
believed,  to  many  in  the  large  crowd.  His  ordination 
took  place  in  King  William  County,  July  4,  1893,  and  his 
first  pastorate  was  at  Sharon  and  Colosse  Churches,  in 
King  William  County,  Virginia,  where  for  seven  years 
he  labored.  His  preparation  for  the  ministry  was  made 
at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  Louisville, 
Ky.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  years  he  had  been  baptized 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  Wilderness  Church  by  Rev. 
W.  A.  Hill.  He  was  born  at  Bristerburg,  Fauquier 
County,  Virginia,  July  21,  1861,  the  first  year  of  the 
Civil  War,  his  parents  being  Benjamin  Hiter  James  and 
Nancy  Maria  James.  After  an  illness  of  a  few  weeks 
he  passed  away  at  Graham,  Va.,  on  Friday,  November 
2,  1906,  and  the  following  Sunday  the  funeral  services 
were  held  at  Pamplin  City,  Va.,  being  conducted  by 
Rev.  S.  H.  Thompson,  assisted  by  Rev.  J.  J.  Cook,  Rev. 
S.  R.  Winn,  and  Rev.  P.  T.  Warren.  The  burial  took 
place  in  the  family  cemetery  of  Hon.  John  W.  Harwood. 
His  daughter,  Ellen  Holmden  Harwood,  who  became 
Mr.  James'  wife  November  24,  1897,  survived  her 
husband. 


ALFRED  ELIJAH  DICKINSON 
1830-1906 

The  Dickinson  family  has  for  several  centuries  given 
to  England  and  America  many  distinguished  and  useful 
men  and  women.  The  founder  of  the  family  is  believed 
by  careful  students  to  have  been  Walter  of  Caen,  whose 
name  appears  with  those  who  came  over  to  England  from 
Normandy  with  William  the  Conqueror  in  1066,  and 
whose  name  also  is  found  upon  the  battle  roll  of  Hast- 
ings. "According  to  an  English  record,  in  order  to 
Anglicize  his  name  he  received  a  grant  of  land  in  the  old 
Saxon  manor  of  Kenson  near  the  city  of  Leads,  York- 
shire." Walter  de  Kenson  easily  was  changed  to  Walter 
Dickenson  or  Dickinson. 

Henry  Dickinson  emigrated  from  London  to  America 
in  1654,  settled  in  Virginia,  and  was  the  direct  ancestor 
of  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Among  the  many  famous 
men  bearing  the  name  in  our  Colonial  and  Revolutionary 
period  were  Jonathan  Dickinson,  first  President  of 
Princeton  College,  and  John  Dickinson,  member  of  the 
Colonial  and  of  the  Continental  congresses,  President  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  one  of  the  greatest  political  writers 
of  his  time. 

In  quite  recent  years  two  bearing  the  name  have  been 
members  of  the  Cabinet  at  Washington.  However,  it 
may  be  justly  said  that  few,  if  any,  individuals  of  this 
family  have  been  so  widely  known  or  so  genuinely  useful 
to  humanity  as  Alfred  Elijah  Dickinson,  who  was  born 
December  3,  1830,  in  Orange  County,  Virginia.  His 
father,  Ralph  Dickinson,  was  a  successful  farmer  and 
a  quiet,  devoted  Christian.  His  mother,  whose  maiden 

166 


ALFRED  ELIJAH  DICKINSON  167 

name  was  Frances  A.  S.  Quisenbcrry,  was  of  a  well- 
known  family  and  a  woman  of  great  vigor  of  body  and 
mind  and  of  a  warm,  impulsive  heart.  While  the  subject 
of  this  sketch  was  an  infant  the  family  moved  to  Louisa 
County,  where  his  father  purchased  a  large  plantation  in 
sight  of  the  lower  Blue  Ridge  Mountains  and  about  two 
miles  from  Trevilian's  Station  on  the  Chesapeake  &  Ohio 
R.  R.  This  locality  and  county  were  always  very  dear 
to  Alfred  E.  Dickinson,  and  throughout  his  life  he 
revisited  these  scenes  many  times  each  year.  The  old 
home  was  full  of  happy  children,  always  open  for 
visitors,  and  permeated  with  a  strong  Christian  spirit. 
The  parents  were  members  of  Foster  Creek  (now  Berea) 
Baptist  Church,  and  here  Alfred  was  baptized,  when 
about  seventeen  years  of  age,  by  Rev.  E.  G.  Shipp.  He 
felt  an  overwhelming  desire  to  preach,  and,  being  urged 
to  aid  in  a  new  and  struggling  church  recently  organ- 
ized a  few  miles  away  at  Forest  Hill,  he  took  his  church 
letter  to  that  body.  After  several  months  he  was  both 
licensed  to  preach  and  ordained  there.  At  this  time  he 
was  teaching  a  small  school  near  his  father's  home.  One 
day  in  the  spring  the  famous  and  devoted  Dr.  Robert 
Ryland,  President  of  Richmond  College,  appeared  at  the 
home,  spent  the  afternoon  and  night  there,  talked  with 
the  young  teacher  about  his  life  purposes,  and,  before  he 
left,  had  made  him  promise  to  enter  college.  The  next 
fall  (1849)  Alfred  entered  Richmond  College,  where  he 
studied  until  his  graduation  in  1852.  During  his  three 
vacation  summers  he  worked  as  a  missionary  colporteur 
in  the  Goshen  Association,  going,  on  horseback,  from 
house  to  house  and  from  church  to  church  with  Bibles 
and  good  books,  and  preaching  as  opportunity  offered. 
This  was  a  very  helpful  experience,  and  often  in  later 
years  he  urged  a  similar  work  upon  men  thinking  of 
entering  the  ministry.  It  was  while  at  Richmond  College 


168         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

that  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Miss  Frances  E. 
Taylor,  daughter  of  the  eminent  and  godly  Rev.  Dr. 
James  B.  Taylor.  This  acquaintance,  a  few  years  later, 
ripened  into  a  happy  marriage  that  took  place  in  1857. 
After  graduating  at  Richmond  College,  Dr.  Dickinson 
taught  school  for  a  session  in  Louisa  County  (one  of 
his  pupils  became  the  honored  Greek  teacher,  Herbert 
H.  Harris),  and  preached  for  a  year  at  the  Lower  and 
Upper  Gold  Mine  Churches  in  the  vicinity.  He  then 
studied  at  the  University  of  Virginia  two  sessions,  where 
he  formed  many  happy  and  lifelong  friendships.  While 
there  he  was  asked  to  become  pastor  of  the  Baptist 
Church  at  Charlottesville  to  succeed  the  famous  John  A. 
Broadus,  who  was  about  to  begin  a  term  of  service 
as  Chaplain  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  Dr.  Dickin- 
son's two  years'  pastorate  at  the  Charlottesville  Church 
was  marked  by  several  great  revivals,  and  he  baptized 
hundreds  of  converts.  In  his  diary  of  that  period 
we  have  this  entry  for  one  Sunday:  "I  baptized  this 
day  four  times."  After  two  years  he  removed  to 
Richmond,  where  he  had  been  invited  to  come  as  Super- 
intendent of  Baptist  Colportage  and  Sunday-School 
Work  of  the  State,  which  then  meant  all  of  Virginia 
from  the  Ohio  River  to  the  ocean.  For  nine  years  he 
li eld  this  important  and  laborious  position,  and  it  was 
one  of  the  most  fruitful  and  thrilling  periods  of  his  life. 
Thousands  of  ministers  and  Sunday-school  missionaries 
and  colporteurs  were  employed,  hundreds  of  Sunday 
schools  and  churches  were  organized,  thousands  of  per- 
sons wrere  converted,  and  large  sums  of  money  were 
secured.  The  guiding,  energizing  human  agent  behind 
all  this  was  Alfred  E.  Dickinson.  During  this  period 
raged  the  terrible  Civil  War,  the  chief  theater  of  which 
was  the  State  of  Virginia.  For  four  years  Dr.  Dickin- 
son pushed  his  work  among  the  soldiers,  and  in  one  year 


ALFRED  ELIJAH  DICKINSON  169 

raised  one  hundred  and  eighty  thousand  dollars  for  the 
distribution  of  Bibles  and  religious  books  and  for  other 
work  in  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  He  traveled 
widely,  toiled  unceasingly,  preached  continually,  made 
warm  friendships  with  many  famous  military  and 
political  leaders,  including  Robert  E.  Lee  and  Stonewall 
Jackson,  and  held  a  number  of  great  revival  meetings 
among  the  soldiers.  At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  he 
became  pastor  of  the  Leigh  Street  Baptist  Church,  then 
and  now  one  of  the  largest  churches  in  Richmond.  This 
was  a  very  happy  pastorate,  and  lasted  for  five  years, 
and  was  marked  by  several  great  revivals.  One  of  these 
came  as  a  great  surprise,  when  apparently  few  were  pray- 
ing for  it.  This  revival  lasted,  with  great  spiritual  power, 
for  several  months,  and  about  two  hundred  were  baptized 
as  the  fruit,  in  part,  of  the  meetings.  Dr.  Dickinson 
afterwards  rejoiced  to  trace  this  spiritual  quickening  to 
the  prayers  of  one  quiet  and  aged  woman.  While  pastor 
of  Leigh  Street  Church  the  honored  Rev.  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter 
called  on  him  one  morning  to  invite  him  to  join  with  him 
in  the  editorship  and  publication  of  the  Religions  Herald, 
whose  office  had  been  burned  at  the  close  of  the  War. 
The  paper  itself,  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  influential 
journals  in  the  United  States,  had  suspended  publication 
for  some  time.  In  the  fall  of  1865  the  firm  of  Jeter  & 
Dickinson  was  formed  for  control  and  editorship  of  this 
paper.  One  of  the  keynotes  of  both  editors  was  peace, 
the  healing  of  the  wounds  of  the  Civil  War.  Probably 
no  man  did  more  than  Dr.  Dickinson,  by  pen  and  voice 
and  his  spirit  of  conciliation,  to  bring  together  North  and 
South  in  a  new  fellowship  of  Christian  love  and  service. 
He  was  a  brilliant  writer  of  editorial  paragraphs,  and 
the  success  of  the  paper  for  several  decades  was  largely 
dne  to  the  fertility  of  his  resources.  He  traveled  widely 
and  continually,  attending  religious  gatherings  all  over 


170         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

the  country;  he  gave  his  aid  to  every  worthy  cause, 
helping  scores  of  struggling  churches  and  young  men 
studying  for  the  ministry.  He  preached  more  frequently 
than  many  settled  pastors  do.  Several  times  he  under- 
took the  work  of  a  financial  agent  for  Richmond  College, 
and  the  present  endowment  of  that  institution  is  in  a 
good  measure  due  to  him.  He  held  temporary  pastorates 
in  the  Pine  Street  and  Fulton  Churches,  Richmond,  and 
the  First  Church,  Manchester,  and  in  a  number  of 
country  churches,  and  in  several  cases  was  the  leader  in 
the  erection  of  new  church  buildings.  It  is  estimated 
that  more  than  fifty  young  men  were  aided  by  him 
through  the  years  in  preparing  for  the  Christian  ministry, 
It  was  his  delight  to  aid  pastors  in  evangelistic  meetings, 
and  he  had  remarkable  gifts  of  pathos  and  persuasion  in 
this  work. 

Dr.  Dickinson  always  cherished  a  warm  and  affection- 
ate interest  in  the  colored  people,  frequently  preaching 
in  their  churches,  counseling  with  their  ministers,  and 
trying  in  every  way  to  uplift  them  religiously  and  educa- 
tionally. When,  a  few  years  after  the  Civil  War,  the 
American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  started  a  theo- 
logical school  for  colored  preachers  in  Richmond,  he  was 
one  of  the  chief  helpers.  Dr.  S.  F.  Smith,  the  famous 
author  of  "My  Country,  Tis  of  Thee,"  came  to  Rich- 
mond for  some  days  to  study  the  field,  and  was  the  guest, 
while  there,  at  Dr.  Dickinson's  home,  and  wrote  later  of 
the  invaluable  aid  received  from  him.  Between  him  and 
Dr.  Charles  H.  Corey,  the  president  of  that  school  for 
many  years,  there  was  a  warm  and  intimate  friendship 
until  death  came. 

He  was  married  to  Miss  Frances  E.  Taylor  in  1857r 
to  Miss  M.  Lou  Barksdale  in  1879,  and  to  Miss  Bessie 
Bagby  in  1899.  The  children  who  survive  him  are  Rev. 
Dr.  James  Taylor  Dickinson,  Miss  Nellie  Taylor  Dickin- 


ALFRED  ELIJAH  DICKINSON  171 

son,  Mrs.  Samuel  M.  Torian,  Miss  Janie  P.  Dickinson, 
and  Mrs.  Edward  A.  Hobbs. 

Among  the  characteristics  of  Dr.  Dickinson,  those  who 
knew  him  before  his  last  sickness  would  always  think  of 
his  exuberant  vitality.  Six  feet  in  height,  well  rounded 
in  figure,  his  face  ruddy  with  health,  his  step  quick  and 
elastic,  his  eyes  sparkling  with  happiness  and  humor,  his 
bodily  presence  arrested  attention  in  any  assembly,  and 
his  simple  geniality,  kindly  wit,  and  unostentatious  piety 
won  friends  in  any  household.  By  intuition  and  experi- 
ence he  possessed  a  shrewd  knowledge  of  human  nature 
which  served  him  well  in  many  a  difficult  situation.  He 
was  a  wide  and  rapid  reader  of  books,  with  a  special 
fondness  for  biography.  For  many  years  he  always  kept 
close  at  hand  the  life  of  some  religious  leader,  into  which 
he  would  dip  after  his  morning  Scripture  meditation.  He 
was  especially  fond  of  the  biographies  of  those  saintly 
men  Edward  Payson  and  Robert  Murray  McCheyne,  and 
read  and  re-read  them  many  times.  He  had  a  deep  and 
unspeakable  love  and  reverence  for  the  Bible,  and  the 
first  hour  of  each  day,  following  the  morning  meal,  he 
gave  to  loving  reading  and  study  of  it.  Familiar  with 
much  of  modern  thought,  the  New  Testament  in  its  story, 
parable,  and  inspiration  lifted  itself  in  his  thought  and 
reverence  high  above  all  the  dust  of  human  controversy 
to  the  heights  of  heaven.  In  its  revelation  of  Christ  and 
God  and  duty  and  immortality  it  met  his  own  sense  of 
need. 

Dr.  Dickinson  had  great  gifts  as  a  popular  speaker  and 
preacher.  Humor  and  pathos,  a  rare  fund  of  illustra- 
tions, sympathy  with  humanity  and  the  individual,  and 
a  power  of  ad  hominen  appeal — these  were  some  of  the 
sources  of  his  influence  as  a  speaker. 

As  an  illustration  of  some  of  his  bright  experiences  as 
a  traveler  and  of  some  of  his  genial  and  effective  charac- 


172         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

teristics  as  a  speaker  and  a  man,  it  will  be  of  interest  to 
introduce  here  Dr.  Dickinson's  own  account  in  the 
Religious  Herald,  written  several  years  before  his  death, 
of  one  of  his  visits  to  the  North  to  secure  funds  for 
Richmond  College.  The  "  'possum  story"  alluded  to,  he 
told  with  inimitable  humor  and  charm  at  many  gather- 
ings in  the  North,  and  after  the  passage  of  about  twenty 
years  it  is  still  vividly  remembered  by  those  who  heard 
it  from  his  lips.  Dr.  Dickinson's  account  is  as  follows: 

''Some  twelve  years  ago  I  visited  Boston  in  the  interest 
of  Baptist  educational  work  in  Virginia  and  the  South, 
and  obtained  permission  to  deliver  an  address  on  a  Sun- 
day afternoon  in  Tremont  Temple  on  'The  Truth  about 
the  South.'  The  subject  was  well  advertised,  and  I  had 
a  large  congregation.  The  next  morning  I  found  that 
my  remarks  were  reproduced  almost  verbatim  in  the  most 
widely  circulated  Republican  paper  of  the  city.  I  called 
to  thank  the  editor  of  that  paper  for  the  kindness  he  had 
done  me ;  but  he  said :  'You  owe  me  no  thanks.  Your 
people  at  the  South  do  not  believe  it,  but  the  truth  about 
the  South  is  just  what  many  of  us  up  here  most  desire  to 
know,  and,  hence,  as  soon  as  I  ascertained  that  that 
would  be  the  subject  of  your  address  I  determined  to 
print  a  full  report  of  it.'  That  great  daily  was  then,  and 
is  now,  the  leading  Republican  paper  in  New  England. 
For  much  of  the  success  I  had  in  Boston  I  am  indebted  to 
that  Republican  editor.  The  same  little  talk  on  'The 
Truth  about  the  South'  I  repeated  in  many  places  and 
with  good  results. 

"I  sought  the  President  of  the  Baptist  Social  Union 
of  Boston  and  asked  to  be  permitted  to  speak  at  the  meet- 
ing of  that  body,  which  was  to  be  held  at  Tremont 
Temple  the  same  day  on  which  I  made  the  request.  He 
replied  that  the  arrangements  were  all  made  and  there 
could  now  be  no  change  in  the  programme;  but  he 


ALFRED  ELIJAH  DICKINSON  173 

gave  me  a  ticket  which  entitled  me  to  a  seat  on  the  plat- 
form and  said:  'You  can  not  speak  on  this  occasion.  At 
some  future  time  we  may  hear  you,  provided  you  make 
no  appeal  for  money.  The  Social  Union  has  very  strict 
rules  on  that  subject,  and  nothing  is  allowed  looking  to 
raising  money  at  these  monthly  gatherings,  unless  the 
circumstances  are  very  peculiar  and  very  urgent.'  I  took 
the  hint  and  the  ticket  and  heard  a  very  fine  address  from 
Governor  Long,  now  a  member  of  Mr.  McKinley's 
Cabinet,  then  Governor  of  the  State  of  Massachusetts, 
and  one  from  Bishop  Brooks,  now  deceased,  but  then  the 
great  Episcopal  preacher  of  New  England,  and  one  from 
a  certain  distinguished  Congregationalist,  whose  name  I 
can  not  now  recall.  No  one  of  the  speakers  was  a  Bap- 
tist, but  all  three  of  them  said  handsome  things  about  the 
Baptists.  Just  as  the  last  speaker  closed,  the  president 
stepped  over  to  me  and  whispered  thus:  'I  will  call  on 
you  for  a  three -minute  talk  if  you  will  not  speak  longer 
than  that  and  if  you  will  not  say  anything  about  the 
object  of  your  visit  to  Boston — not  a  word  about 
money/  Then  he  said  to  the  audience :  'We  have  heard 
from  these  distinguished  brethren  of  other  denomina- 
tions, and  here  is  a  Baptist  brother  from  old  Virginia,  an 
ex-rebel,  who  wishes  to  say  a  word.  Shall  we  give  him 
just  three  minutes — that  much  and  no  more?'  I  began 
by  saying  that  I  had  often  heard  of  "Free-Speech 
Boston,"  and  that  no  man  could  be  gagged  in  Boston, 
but  that  limiting  me  to  three  minutes  reminded  me  of  an 
old  colored  man  down  in  old  Virginia  who  went  'possum 
hunting.  He  came  back  about  midnight,  tired  and 
hungry  and  sleepy,  but  he  had  his  'possum.  He  dressed 
it  and  put  it  in  a  skillet  and  placed  it  on  a  few  hot 
embers  and  said :  'Now,  old  'pos.,  you  cook  here  while  I 
get  a  little  nap.'  Then  he  threw  himself  down  on  his 
cot  and  was  in  a  moment  sound  asleep.  But  while  he 


174         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

was  asleep  another  colored  brother  came  in  and  found 
the  'possum  all  right  and  ate  it.  He  then  pushed  the 
table,  on  which  was  the  plate,  with  knife  and  fork  and 
bones,  up  against  the  sleeper,  and,  that  there  might  be  no 
doubt  as  to  who  ate  the  'possum,  he  rubbed  some  of  the 
gravy  upon  the  sleeper's  lips  and  then  slipped  out.  After 
a  while  the  sleeper  awoke,  and,  before  his  eyes  were  well 
open,  he  began  saying  to  himself :  'This  is  the  hungriest 
nigger  God  ever  made ;  but  I  have  a  good  'possum,  and 
it's  all  right  now.'  Then,  looking  around  and  failing  to 
see  the  skillet,  he  said :  'How  is  this  ?  There  was  no  one 
here  but  the  'possum  and  me,  and  now  the  'possum  is 
not  here.'  And  then,  seeing  the  plate  and  the  bones 
lying  by  him,  he  said:  'Well,  I  must  have  eaten  that 
'possum,  for  here's  the  plate  and  the  bones  and  the  gravy 
upon  my  lips.  Of  course  I  must  have  eaten  that  'possum ; 
but  never  have  I  had  a  'possum  to  lie  so  light  upon  my 
stomach  and  to  give  me  so  little  consolation  as  that 
'possum.' 

"  'Brethren,'  said  I,  'it's  that  way  with  me  to-night. 
To  come  so  far  and  to  be  dealt  with  this  way  gives  me 
no  consolation  at  all.'  From  every  part  of  the  room 
came  cries :  'Tell  what  you  came  to  Boston  for,'  and  the 
presiding  officer  said :  'Brethren,  you  have  taken  the 
responsibility  off  of  me.  Now  the  brother  can  tell  it,  if 
you  insist  upon  his  doing  so.'  They  did  insist,  and  I 
told  it  as  well  as  I  could  tinder  the  circumstances, 

"Now,  concerning  the  collection.  Well,  there  was 
none  taken — none  at  all;  but  they  gathered  around  me 
and  took  me  by  the  hand  and  said  pleasant  things.  A 
dear  old  brother  of  more  than  fourscore  years  said: 
'Meet  me  at  my  office  on  Devonshire  Street  at  10  o'clock 
to-morrow  morning.  Sharp,'  said  he,  'at  10.'  Of  course 
I  was  there  on  time,  although  a  great  snow  storm  was 
sweeping  over  Boston  that  morning.  The  first  thing  the 


ALFRED  ELIJAH  DICKINSON  175 

old  gentleman  said  to  me  as  he  came  into  his  office  and 
threw  off  his  overcoat  was:  'You  have  gotten  me  into 
trouble.'  And  then  he  explained:  'My  wife  asked  me  at 
breakfast  this  morning  what  it  was  that  I  was  laughing 
about  in  my  sleep  last  night,  and  I  told  her  it  was  your 
'possum  story,  and  I  undertook  to  tell  the  story  to  her, 
but  failed  in  the  attempt,  and  I  left  my  family  laughing 
at  the  idea  that  I  should  enjoy  a  thing  so  much  as  to 
laugh  about  it  in  my  sleep  and  yet  be  unable  to  explain  it 
in  my  waking  hours.  I  wish  you  to  tell  it  over  to  me, 
that  I  may  tell  it  to  my  family  when  I  go  home  to  din- 
ner.' Then,  pausing  a  moment,  he  said:  'Wait  until  I 
can  go  out  and  bring  my  brother  and  my  nephew  in,  that 
they  may  hear  it  too.'  In  a  few  minutes  he  returned 
with  his  brother  and  his  nephew,  and,  locking  the  door, 
he  said  :  'We  are  all  ready  now.  Let  us  have  the  'possum 
story.'  Then  he  said:  'Stop;  tell  us  what  a  'possum  is. 
Is  it  a  thing  that  flies  or  something  that  crawls?'  I 
answered  his  question,  and  then  repeated  the  story — and 
then  wrote  the  old  man's  name  in  my  book  for  $1 .000  for 
Richmond  College,  and  his  brother's  name  for  $250 ;  but 
the  nephew  said :  'Please  excuse  me.  I  think  my  father 
and  uncle  have  paid  enough  on  that  'possum  for  the 
whole  family'." 

Dr.  Dickinson,  as  a  writer,  not  only  had  remarkable 
gifts  as  a  racy  paragraph ist  and  as  a  reporter  of  religious 
assemblies  and  as  a  writer  of  editorials,  but  he  also  was 
the  author  of  a  number  of  religious  and  denominational 
booklets  and  pamphlets  which  have  had  a  very  wide  influ- 
ence. One  of  these  has  been  translated  into  several 
European  languages. 

Dr.  Dickinson  was  by  nature  warm-hearted  and 
impulsive.  This  natural  impulsiveness,  while  often  a 
source  of  power,  sometimes  brought  him  into  trying 
situations.  Those  who  knew  him  longest  and  most  inti- 


176          VIRGINIA.  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

mately  believed  that  the  two  mighty  forces  back  of  his 
long  life  of  unceasing  activity  and  world-wide  helpful- 
ness were  personal  devotion  to  Christ  and  ever-growing 
love  for  humanity.  He  had  a  deep,  personal  experience 
of  God's  redeeming  grace  in  Christ,  and  he  adored  the 
Saviour  as  the  only  refuge  of  the  soul.  From  early  years 
to  the  end  of  his  life  he  had  a  yearning  love  and  sym- 
pathy for  men  and  women  and  children — for  the  com- 
mon people.  He  could  always  see  in  the  humblest  types— 
and  especially  in  young  people — great  treasures  of  spirit- 
ual possibility.  So,  as  sorrow  and  disappointment  and 
death  came  again  and  again,  and  as  the  swift  years  bore 
him  on,  and  as  at  last,  after  long  sickness,  he  came,  at 
the  age  of  seventy-six,  to  face  the  end  of  all  things 
earthly,  he  was  not  cynical  or  bitter  or  lonely.  The  love 
and  prayers  of  a  great  multitude  of  friends  seemed  to 
bear  up  his  heart.  The  Saviour  was  very  vivid  to  his 
faith  and  consciousness.  Despite  the  long  sickness  and 
the  weary  body  and  the  failing  mind,  it  was  light  in  the 
evening  when  his  spirit  passed  away,  November  20,  1906. 

James  Taylor  Dickinson. 


SIMEON  U.  GRIMSLEY 
1839-1906 

On  January  16,  1879,  a  man  who  had  worn,  with 
courage  and  honor,  the  uniform  of  a  Confederate  soldier, 
was  being  set  apart  for  leadership  in  the  army  of  King 
Immanuel.  This  ordination  service  was  held  at  Mt. 
Horeb  Church,  Caroline  County,  Virginia,  a  church 
organized  in  1773.  The  new  preacher  in  the  ranks  of  the 
gospel  ministry  was  Simeon  U.  Grimsley,  who,  having 
been  born  in  the  city  of  Richmond  in  1839,  was  in  his 
fortieth  year.  In  1876  he  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the 
Smyrna  Church,  Caroline  County.  His  first  charge  was 
Mt.  Horeb,  Mt.  Hermon,  and  Providence  Churches, 
Caroline  County,  in  the  Dover  and  Rappahannock  Asso- 
ciations. His  salary  did  not  warrant  him  in  keeping  a 
horse,  but  he  "kept  his  appointments,"  though  this  meant 
walking,  and  his  churches  were  not  near  together.  In 
1883  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Union  Church,  on  the 
Chincoteague  Island.  This  island,  lying  in  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  and  off  the  coast  of  Accomac  County,  is  famous 
for  its  ponies  that  run  wild,  and  once  a  year  are  sold  for 
good  prices.  At  the  time  of  Mr.  Grimsley's  going  to  the 
island  it  was  "dominated  by  an  exceedingly  immoral 
spirit.  Religion  was  little  more  than  bald  fanaticism. 
Intemperance  was  rampant,  and  the  outlook  generally 
was  dismal  indeed."  The  new  pastor  was  equal  to  the 
situation,  and  in  five  years  the  condition  of  things  was 
very  different ;  the  saloons  had  been  put  out  of  commis- 
sion and  his  church  was  one  of  the  best  organized  and 
largest  in  the  Accomac  Association.  When  he  died  the 
church  had  a  well-appointed  meeting-house  and  a  good 

177 


12 


178         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

parsonage,  and  was  forward  in  every  good  work.  In 
view  of  the  fact  that  he  had  had  no  training  in  the 
schools,  his  preaching  was  most  remarkable,  being  always 
earnest,  thoughtful,  devout,  and  scriptural.  He  was 
effective  in  evangelistic  meetings.  He  was  a  man  of 
great  moral  courage,  and  was  never  known  "to  quail  in 
the  face  of  foe,  man,  or  devil." 

"For  many  weary  months,  in  pain  and  suffering,  he 
lingered,  a  helpless  paralytic;  with  blended  faith  and 
hope  he  rested  on  the  sure  mercies  of  God."  On  Thurs- 
day, November  29,  1906,  he  passed  to  his  reward.  This 
sketch,  in  the  main,  is  based  on  articles  from  the  pen  of 
Rev.  J.  W.  Hundley. 


RICHARD  EDWARDS 

1860(?)-1907 

One  of  the  gifts  of  the  Portsmouth  Association  to  the 
Baptist  ministry  of  Virginia  was  Rev.  Richard  Edwards. 
His  ordination,  which  took  place  in  June,  1892,  at  his 
mother  church,  Millfield,  had  back  of  it  a  long  and  hard 
struggle  for  an  education.  His  lack  of  funds  might  have 
altogether  blocked  his  way,  but  Rev.  Joseph  F.  Deans, 
a  sketch  of  whose  life  appears  elsewhere  in  this  volume, 
proved  a  friend  indeed,  enabling  the  young  man  to 
attend,  for  his  secondary  schooling,  the  Windsor 
Academy.  From  here  he  passed  to  Richmond  College 
and  then  to  Crozer  Theological  Seminary.  His  first 
charge  upon  leaving  the  Seminary  was  a  field  made  up 
of  the  Jerusalem  and  Farnham  Churches,  in  the  Rappa- 
hannock  Association.  Here  he  labored  for  thirteen 
years,  being  warmly  and  deservedly  esteemed.  Towards 
all  classes  he  was  "cordial,  warm-hearted,  sympathetic, 
and  unfailingly  considerate  and  kind."  The  children, 
the  Sunday  school,  the  young  people's  meeting,  the  young 
men  and  girls,  all  had  a  place  in  his  thought  and  care. 
From  this  field  in  Richmond  County  he  went,  in  May, 
1905,  to  take  charge  of  Modest  Town  and  Mappsville 
Churches,  in  Accomac.  Here  he  soon  "established  him- 
self in  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  people  as  a  man 
of  deep  and  unaffected  piety  and  a  minister  of  zeal, 
prudence,  and  singleness  of  aim  in  the  Master's  service." 
His  gifts  were  "solid  rather  than  shining,  and  his  style 
of  preaching  was  rather  direct,  simple,  and  practical  than 
nrnate  and  eloquent.  .  .  .  The  man,  the  true  man, 
was  behind  his  speech  and  gave  it  power."  He  was  mar- 

179 


180         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ried  to  Miss  Mattie  A.  Laine,  who,  with  four  daughters, 
survived  him.  "In  the  guidance  and  comfort  of  his 
household  he  was  the  embodiment  of  Scriptural  faithful- 
ness, of  thoughtful  attention,  of  delicate  tact,  of  prac- 
tical help  and  service.  To  visitors  beneath  his  roof,  and 
to  his  brethren  of  the  ministry  notably,  his  overflowing 
kindness,  his  social  warmth  of  feeling,  and  his  grace  of 
hospitality  ever  bespoke  his  generous  and  tender  heart/' 
On  February  10,  1907,  in  the  forty-eighth  year  of  his 
age,  he  passed  away,  after  only  a  week's  illness  of 
pneumonia.  The  beautiful  obituary,  from  the  pen  of 
Rev.  G.  W.  Beale,  is  the  basis  of  this  sketch. 


WILLIAM  SYDNOR  PENICK 

1836-1907 

At  "Oak  Plain,"  Halifax  County,  Virginia,  the  planta- 
tion of  his  parents,  William  and  Elizabeth  Armistead 
Penick,  on  May  12,  1836,  William  Sydnor  Penick,  the 
third  child  of  the  home,  was  born.  Until  he  was  fifteen 
years  old  "he  lived  in  the  glad  freedom  of  plantation  life 
before-the-War,"  and  shared,  with  his  three  brothers  and 
two  sisters,  the  careful  training  of  Mr.  Berryman  Green 
and  Mr.  Rufus  Murrell,  cultured  gentlemen  who  were 
tutors  in  this  home.  According  to  the  custom  of  the  day 
the  tutor  roomed  in  the  "office,"  in  the  yard,  with  the 
boys,  and  instructed  all  the  children  in  Latin,  Greek, 
Mathematics,  and  the  English  branches.  Doubtless 
"manners"  and  dancing  were  not  omitted  from  the  cur- 
riculum of  this  school.  Mr.  Penick  was  an  ardent  lover 
of  the  chase,  and  his  son,  Sydnor,  at  an  early  age,  having 
a  hunter  of  his  own,  imbibed  a  love  for  horses,  dogs,  and 
hunting,  especially  following  the  hounds,  that  went  with 
him  through  life.  Since  the  father  and  the  tutor  united 
in  desiring  that  young  Sydnor  should  become  a  lawyer, 
and  since  it  was  Mr.  Penick's  opinion  that  a  business 
training  was  fundamental  to  that  profession,  the  youth, 
at  the  age  of  fifteen,  was  "bound"  for  three  years  to  a 
Mr.  Marshall,  a  successful  merchant  in  Charlotte  County. 
During  these  years  the  young  man  met  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men,  from  the  backwoods  people  to  the 
aristocrats  of  the  great  neighboring  tobacco  plantations, 
and  so  had  full  opportunity  to  learn  human  nature.  Nor 
was  this  period  without  trying  experiences  that  taught 
hard  lessons  in  self-denial  and  self-control.  From  his 

181 


182         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

very  childhood  the  youth  won  friends  by  his  charm  and 
courtesy  of  manner,  his  quick  wit,  and  his  handsome 
face,  that  might  almost  have  been  called  beautiful. 

Since  Mr.  Penick  was  an  ardent  Episcopalian  (he  was 
also  a  Whig),  it  was  a  distinct  disappointment  to  him 
when  Sydnor,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  was  baptized, 
probably  by  Rev.  James  Longanacre,  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  Catawba  Baptist  Church,  his  mother's  church. 
Again  the  father  was  doomed  to  disappointment  in  his 
plans  as  to  this  son's  education.  When  his  engagement 
with  Mr.  Marshall  was  over,  the  young  man  set  out  in 
the  stage  for  Charlottesville  and  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia. On  passing  through  Richmond  he  was  persuaded 
by  friends  to  enter  Richmond  College,  and  he  took  this 
step  before  consulting  his  father,  his  plan  being  to  follow 
his  course  at  the  college  by  further  study  at  the  Uni- 
versity, but  alas,  this  plan  was  never  carried  out.  During 
his  years  at  the  college,  among  his  friends  were  Charles 
H.  Ryland,  William  E.  Hatcher,  James  B.  Taylor,  Jr., 
and  C.  C.  Chaplin,  and  when  he  graduated,  in  1858, 
besides  him  the  other  members  of  the  class  were  William 
E.  Hatcher,  Harvey  Hatcher,  Samuel  H.  Pulliam,  John 
W.  Ryland,  and  Joseph  A.  Turner.  While  at  college  he 
organized  the  Philologian  Literary  Society,  being  its  first 
president,  and  in  the  hall  of  this  society  there  hangs  his 
portrait,  which  the  society  had  painted  in  1875.  After  he 
left  the  college  he  kept  up  an  interesting  correspondence 
for  many  years  with  his  professors,  George  E.  Dabney 
and  Robert  Ryland,  and,  in  1866,  when  the  question  arose 
in  the  General  Association  as  to  the  reopening  of  the  col- 
lege after  the  ravages  of  the  War,  the  third  speaker  in  the 
discussion  which  resulted  in  the  recommencement  of  the 
college  was  Mr.  Penick.  In  1871  his  alma  mater  con- 
ferred on  him  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts,  and  some 
years  later  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity. 


WILLIAM  SYDNOR  PENICK  183 

Once  again  his  father  was  disappointed  when,  at  the  close 
of  his  college  course,  he  decided  to  be  a  minister  of  the 
gospel  and  not  a  lawyer.  The  fact  that  his  father  had 
suffered  financial  reverses  and  was  not  able  to  send  him 
to  the  University  of  Virginia  may  have  had  something 
to  do  with  this  decision,  but  there  was  another  event  that 
helped  to  bring  about  this  step.  His  mother,  a  woman 
of  strong  will  and  deep  consecration,  had  felt  that  her 
son  Sydnor,  being  the  most  restless  and  self-willed  of 
her  children,  needed  more  earnest  and  continuous  prayer 
than  any  of  the  others.  One  day  the  boy,  in  mad  search 
for  some  fishing  tackle,  rushed  up  into  the  attic.  There 
he  overheard  his  mother  telling  the  Lord  that  although 
Sydnor  was  the  most  unruly  of  her  boys  and  most  bent 
on  the  pleasures  of  this  life,  still  she  implored  that  he 
might  be  converted  and  become  a  Baptist  preacher.  He 
never  forgot  this  prayer.  His  ordination  to  the  ministry 
took  place  at  the  church  of  his  childhood,  Catawba,  in 
Halifax  County,  the  presbytery  being  composed  of  these 
ministers:  A.  M.  Poiridexter,  A.  B.  Brown,  and  John  H. 
Lacy. 

With  his  ordination  began  a  ministry  of  almost  half  a 
century.  Before  his  work  as  a  regular  pastor  was  broken 
in  upon  by  the  War  he  served  successfully  a  weak  church 
at  Chatham,  the  county-seat  of  .Pittsylvania  County,  and, 
by  building  up  a  Sunday  school  of  over  two  hundred 
scholars,  laid  the  foundations  for  a  strong  church.  On 
November  2,  1859,  he  was  married,  at  Chatham,  to  Miss 
Betty  Tarpley  Martin,  a  daughter  of  Dr.  Chesley  Martin 
and  Rebecca  White,  and  the  granddaughter  of  Dr. 
Rawley  White,  of  Pittsylvania.  In  August,  1861,  he 
went  into  the  Confederate  Army  as  Captain  of  the  David 
Logan  Guards,  a  militia  company  equipped  by  his  friend 
and  cousin,  Mr.  David  Logan,  of  Halifax  County.  In 
1868,  sharing,  with  the  vast  majority  of  the  Southern 


184         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

people,  the  deep  poverty  that  was  part  of  the  heritage  of 
the  War,  with  his  young  wife  and  three  children,  he  went 
as  a  missionary  of  the  State  Mission  Board  to  Charles 
Town,  W.  Va.  The  meeting-house  was  in  ruins,  so  a 
semi-monthly  service  Sunday  morning  was  held  in  the 
courthouse,  while  for  the  afternoons  of  these  days  he 
preached  at  old  Zoah,  the  first  house  of  worship  built  in 
Jefferson  County.  The  other  Sundays  of  the  month 
were  given  to  Mt.  Zion,  a  large  country  church  in 
Berkeley  County,  and  to  the  cause  at  Martinsburg,  where 
there  was  no  Baptist  Church.  At  this  place,  in  the  parlor 
of  Mrs.  Henry  Kratz,  he  organized,  with  some  five 
women,  a  Baptist  Church.  The  outlook  here  was  soon 
so  promising  that  the  Board  had  him  give  his  whole  time 
to  Martinsburg.  In  his  report,  in  1871,  to  the  State  Mis- 
sion Board,  he  said :  ...  Since  I  have  been  in 
the  Valley,  three  years,  I  have  paid  about  $2,000  worth 
of  debt  for  the  Charles  Town  Church.  ...  In  Mar- 
tinsburg we  have  built  a  fine  brick  church  which  has  cost 
us  about  $6,000.  The  Mt.  Zion  Church  has  been  refitted 
and  repainted ;  the  old  Zoar  Church  refitted  and  painted 
on  the  inside."  After  leaving  Martinsburg  he  was 
pastor  for  seven  years  of  the  First  Church  of  Alexandria, 
and  then  for  four  years  of  the  High  Street  Church,  Balti- 
more. While  in  Baltimore  he  supplied,  during  the  sum- 
mer, for  churches  in  New  York  and  Yonkers.  About 
this  time  he  had  calls  from  churches  in  New  York  State 
and  Brooklyn  that  were  declined,  while  one  from  the 
First  Church  of  Shreveport,  La.,  was  accepted.  Subse- 
quent events  show  that  his  decision  in  this  matter  was  of 
God,  for  it  is  probable  that  the  best  work  of  his  life  was 
done  in  this  city  of  the  near  Southwest.  Not  only  was 
he  for  thirteen  years  the  beloved  pastor  of  his  church, 
but  the  denomination  felt  his  helpful  influence  all 
through  the  State,  nor  was  this  service  of  his  bound  in 


WILLIAM  SYDNOR  PENICK  185 

by  State  lines.  He  came  to  be  also  one  of  the  first 
rit i /ens  of  his  city,  loved  and  respected,  not  only  by 
Gentiles,  but  by  the  Jews  as  well.  His  literary  culture 
and  fine  address  led  to  his  being  much  in  demand  for 
college  commencements  and  other  similar  occasions,  while 
his  record  during  the  Civil  War  gave  him  high  rank 
among  the  Confederate  Veteran  organizations.  In  1887 
he  established  in  Shreveport  the  Genevieve  Orphanage, 
which  has  grown  into  an  institution  which  is  of  service 
and  blessing  to  north  Louisiana.  It  is  interesting,  in  this 
connection,  to  know  that  as  early  as  1866  he  offered,  in 
the  General  Association  of  Virginia,  a  resolution  calling 
for  a  committee  to  look  into  the  matter  of  caring  for  and 
educating  the  children  of  deceased  Baptist  ministers  of 
Virginia.  While  no  practical  results  came  from  this 
motion,  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  care  of  orphan 
children  was  already  a  matter  that  concerned  him.  In 
1898  he  resigned  at  Shreveport  and  became  pastor  at 
Elizabeth  City,  N.  C,  but  after  three  years  he  returned 
to  the  First  Church  at  Shreveport  and  continued  his 
work  there  until  forced  by  failing  strength  to  give  up  the 
active  work  of  so  large  a  church.  After  this  he  minis- 
tered for  two  years  to  the  Ardis  Memorial,  an  offspring 
of  the  First  Church.  He  had  hoped  that  he  might  labor 
t<>  the  very  end,  but  this  was  not  to  be.  For  two  years 
he  was  called  on  to  wait  and  watch,  with  his  labor  done. 
Finally  the  messenger  came,  and  on  Sunday,  June  30, 
1907,  just  at  the  hour  when  for  almost  half  a  century, 
week  after  week,  he  had  pronounced  the  benediction  at 
the  close  of  the  morning  service,  he  passed  to  the  service 
of  the  heavenly  congregation  that  shall  never  break  up. 
The  funeral  was  conducted  by  Dr.  H.  A.  Sumrell,  pastor 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  and  Dr.  Jasper  K.  Smith, 
pastor  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  all  of  the 
pastors  of  the  city  taking  part  in  the  service.  Along  the 


186         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

streets  to  the  Oakland  Cemetery,  where  the  body  was  laid 
to  rest,  the  crowds  stood  silent  and  tearful  as  the  proces- 
sion passed,  and  the  Confederate  Veterans  covered  the 
grave  with  their  flag. 

Dr.  Penick  was  a  man  of  unusually  fine  appearance 
and  bearing.  In  the  days  of  his  prime,  straight  as  an 
Indian  and  of  portly  build,  he  would  have  attracted 
attention  in  any  crowd.  "He  was  an  industrious  stu- 
dent, a  clear  thinker,  a  sound  theologian."  He  prepared 
his  sermons  with  great  care,  usually  writing  out  fully 
what  he  expected  to  say,  although  he  did  not  always  keep 
closely  to  his  manuscript  in  the  pulpit.  His  sense  of 
humor  was  keen  and  he  was  gifted  as  a  raconteur.  He 
was  devoted  to  his  home,  and  often  refused  invitations 
for  engagements  that  would  have  meant  protracted 
absence  from  his  family.  He  was  hospitable  in  a  high 
degree  and  in  great  demand  as  a  guest.  Possibly  his 
chief  characteristic  was  his  spirit  of  forgiveness,  one  of 
his  favorite  maxims  being :  "As  my  Father  forgives  me, 
a  miserable  sinner,  should  not  I  forgive  my  brother?" 

His  widow  is  now  living  in  New  Orleans,  and  there  are 
six  surviving  children,  namely :  Chesley,  now  Mrs. 
James  Burrows  Johnson,  Charlottesville,  Va. ;  William 
Sydnor  Penick,  New  Orleans  (whose  wife  was  Miss 
Otelia  Jacobs) ;  Dr.  Raleigh  Martin  Penick,  Shreveport, 
La.  (whose  wife  was  Miss  Eugenia  Elizabeth  Carnal) ; 
Mary  Louise,  now  Mrs.  James  Polk  Ford,  New  Orleans ; 
Nathan  Treadway  Penick,  New  Orleans  (whose  wife 
was  Miss  Anne  Stephenson) ;  Martha  Brantley,  now 
Mrs.  Burr.  D.  Ilgenfritz. 


GEORGE  BOARDMAN  TAYLOR 
1832-1907 

George  Boardman  Taylor  was  born  December  27, 
1832,  in  the  pleasant  and  homelike  city  of  Richmond,  Va. 
Its  gardens  in  spring  are  wreathed  with  roses  and  bridal 
spiraea,  and  pretty  Southern  girls,  in  white,  flit  from 
porch  to  porch  with  easy  neighborliness.  Little  squirrels 
skip  across  the  dappled  grass  under  the  venerable  trees 
of  the  old  Capitol  Square,  and  life  is  sweet;  but  Rich- 
mond has  its  cold  winters,  too,  and  in  those  days  of 
unheated  houses  the  inhabitants  often  waked  to  find  their 
breath  forming  a  blue  mist  on  the  frosty  air  and  their 
pitchers  and  basins  masked  with  ice.  George  came  like 
a  belated  Christmas  gift,  on  the  27th  of  December,  to  the 
modest  home  of  a  Baptist  minister,  who  was  later  to  be 
the  first  secretary  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board. 

His  mother  was  of  what  Holmes  calls  the  Brahmin 
caste  of  New  England,  with  a  pious  and  learned  ancestry 
of  ministers  and  college  professors.  In  the  annals  of  her 
family  linger  memories  of  a  kinswoman,  Eunice,  carried 
off  by  the  Indians  in  childhood  and  held  until,  as  a 
woman,  she  no  longer  cared  to  return  to  her  white  kin ; 
bleak  days  in  New  England  when  such  a  family  as  the 
Williams'  often  possessed  little  beside  learning  and  piety. 
One  ancestor  saw  the  light  first  on  one  of  those  "cribbed, 
confin'd"  vessels  in  which  men  and  women  then  faced  the 
elements  for  conscience'  sake,  carrying  ever  after  his 
certificate  of  birth  in  the  unique  name :  Seaborn  Cotton. 
Another  forebear  was  a  chaplain  of  General  Washington, 
and  his  descendants  like  to  seek  his  face  in  the  prow  of 
the  boat  in  which,  with  his  chief,  he  crossed  the  Delaware 

187 


188         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

River.  One  ancestor,  Rev.  Elisha  Williams,  was  the 
fourth  president  of  Yale.  All  this,  not  for  vainglory, 
but  to  account  for  an  almost  morbid  conscientiousness 
and  love  of  books  which  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
absorbed  with  his  mother's  milk.  It  is  the  fashion  of 
our  day  to  satirize  the  stern  theology  and  simple,  un- 
resthetic  lives  of  that  New  England  theocracy,  but  they 
put  iron  into  the  blood  which  our  commonwealth  could 
ill  spare. 

The  father's  family  was  also  of  purely  English  stock, 
but  more  recently  come  from  the  old  country.  It  is  said 
that  the  race  was  near  being  extinguished  in  the  green 
waves  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  Those  were  days  of  that 
dreaded  pressgang  which  Mrs.  Gaskell  has  so  vividly 
portrayed  in  "Sylvia's  Lovers."  The  vessel  on  which 
George  Taylor  and  his  wife  had  embarked  for  America 
was  overtaken  by  one  of  the  ships  out  ranging  to  seize 
men  for  enlistment,  and  he  would  have  been  carried  back 
to  serve,  but  his  wife  clung  to  him  as  the  limpet  to  the 
rock.  The  king's  men  discovered  that  to  take  the  man 
they  would  have  to  have  the  woman  too,  a  double  bargain 
not  worth  while.  The  story  goes  that  in  the  hand-to- 
hand  struggle  the  baby,  James  B.  Taylor,  fell  into  the 
water,  and  by  the  time  he  was  rescued  (who  knows 
how?)  the  pressmen  were  glad  to  be  rid  of  so  trouble- 
some a  family.  However  this  may  be,  that  baby,  James 
Taylor,  proved  one  of  nature's  gentlemen,  and  when 
nature  and  Christianity  combine  to  make  a  gentleman 
they  make  the  best  one  possible.  He  brought  to  the 
moral  making  of  his  son  remarkable  justice  and  sweet- 
ness of  disposition.  Even  the  irreligious  outsider  recog- 
nized his  gracious  saintliness  with  none  of  the  antagonism 
which  more  self-conscious  virtue  is  apt  to  rouse. 


GEORGE  BOARDMAX  TAYLOR 

It  was  a  deeply  pious  home,  but  the  piety  was  genuine, 
and  so  tempered  by  love,  common  sense  and  proportion, 
that  none  of  the  six  children  bred  in  it  were  driven  by 
the  strict  religious  training  to  the  opposite  extreme.  The 
Bible  was  read  and  studied,  and  numberless  hymns  were 
committed  to  memory,  but  the  shelves  were  filled  with 
other  excellently  selected  books,  and  there  was  a  big  yard 
where  the  children  could  play.  It  was  not  unnatural 
that  in  it  the  two  oldest  children  should  enthusiastically 
build  with  broomsedge  and  sticks  a  "George  and  Jane 
College."  George  had  yellow  curls  and  was  a  lovable 
little  boy.  If  he  did  contrive  to  stick  his  aunt's  scissors 
down  a  crack  in  the  porch  he  helped  her  get  them  out 
again,  and  disarmed  criticism  by  hugs  and  kisses. 

At  first  he  went  to  school  with  his  sisters,  where  the 
"dame,"  when  disobeyed,  used  to  slip  a  whalebone  out  of 
her  stays  and  administer  chastisement,  or,  failing  that, 
made  use  of  her  slipper.  He  must  have  been  quite  a  little 
fellow  still  when  sent  to  a  sanctimonious  but  very  stingy 
boarding  school  of  the  Oliver  Twist  order.  George  tried 
to  supplement  the  meager  diet  by  a  large  consumption 
of  blackberries,  and  when  these  produced  a  succession 
of  boils  he  was  too  cannie  to  complain  in  his  letters  home. 
He  tied  his  most  necessary  clothes  up  in  a  small  bundle, 
and  knowing  that  his  father,  on  his  way  to  a  protracted 
meeting,  was  to  pass,  on  the  train,  a  crossroad  a  few 
miles  off,  he  slung  his  small  pack  over  his  shoulder, 
trudged  to  the  spot,  signaled  the  train,  and  was  able 
comfortably  to  pour  forth  his  just  grievances  and  return 
no  more  to  the  place  of  penance.  This  childish  episode 
illustrates  the  cool  deliberation  and  spirit  of  adventure 
combined  in  his  character.  When  he  was  seven  his 
father  became  for  a  year  chaplain  of  the  University  of 
Virginia,  and  this  period  was  always  remembered  with 
pleasure  by  the  family,  who,  being  rather  overgiven  to 


190         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

introspection  and  self-communings,  needed  to  be  thrown 
among  those  who  were  their  equals  in  breeding  and  cul- 
ture, a  luxury  not  always  accessible  to  a  Baptist  minis- 
ter's family.  From  the  University  the  family  returned  to 
Richmond,  and,  as  an  old  man,  he  used  to  tell  with  gusto 
of  swimming  and  diving  with  other  boys  in  the  pictur- 
esque James  River,  and  of  the  jolly  fights  and  feuds 
between  the  "hill  cats"  and  the  "river  cats." 

George  joined  the  church  when  a  boy  and  never 
regretted  it.  Combined  with  his  keen  sense  of  life  and 
mischievous  love  of  fun  was  a  deep  fund  of  character 
and  an  acute  mind  leavened  by  a  conscientious,  strong 
sense  of  duty.  His  imaginative  gifts  were  not,  perhaps, 
remarkable,  but  he  had  rare  gifts  of  reasoning,  good 
judgment,  mental  grasp,  and  breadth  of  spirit.  He 
studied  because  he  loved  study,  and  read  widely  with 
exquisite  appreciation.  He  had  what  might  be  called  real 
hunger  for  ideas  and  trains  of  thought. 

After  graduating  at  Richmond  College  he  taught  for 
a  year  an  "old-field  school"  in  Fluvanna,  reading  and 
studying  meanwhile  on  his  own  account.  He  began  to 
read  law  by  himself,  but  could  not  withstand  the  "weight 
of  evidence"  which  was  to  make  him  a  preacher  and 
pastor. 

Nearly  three  years  were  spent  at  the  University  of 
Virginia,  which  at  that  time  rejoiced  in  the  inspiration  of 
such  professors  as  Gessner  Harrison  and  Wm.  H. 
McGuffey.  While  devoted  to  his  studies,  he  was  active 
in  the  Washington  Literary  Society,  taught  a  Sunday 
school  in  the  Ragged  Mountains,  and  preached  in  neigh- 
boring Baptist  churches.  He  found  pleasure  and  profit 
in  the  companionship  of  John  A.  Broadus,  his  lifelong 
friend,  who  was  then  pastor  in  Charlottesville.  Then,  as 
always,  he  took  delight  in  the  discussion  and  ventilation 
of  ideas  in  morals  and  ethics  with  fellow-students  and 


GEORGE  BOARDMAN  TAYLOR  191 

professors.  The  subject  of  his  own  able  alumni  address 
at  Richmond  College,  on  'The  Thinker,"  shows  the 
favorite  bias  of  his  mind.  On  the  other  hand,  he  had 
strong  social  instinct  which  had  been  little  cultivated  in 
his  quiet,  staid  home.  He  loved  the  society  of  intelligent 
women,  and  while  susceptible  to  beauty,  his  many  friends 
were  rather  remarkable  for  mental  vivacity  and  sym- 
pathetic responsiveness  than  for  mere  pink-and-white 
comeliness.  In  his  third  session  at  the  University  he  had 
a  physical  breakdown  which  prevented  his  taking  the 
Master's  degree. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  University  he  was  called  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  infant  Franklin  Square  Baptist  Church, 
;  Baltimore,  where  he  remained  for  several  years  as  an 
inmate  of  his  kinsman  Dr.  Wilson's  home,  editing,  with 
Dr.  Wilson,  The  Christian  Revieiv,  and  fighting  out  for 
himself  many  of  the  theological  problems  which  confront 
a  young  preacher. 

On  May  13,  1858,  his  life  was  enriched  and  broadened 
by  his  marriage,  at  "Hazel  Hill,"  near  Fredericksburg, 
Va.,  to  Susan  Spots  wood  Braxton,  one  of  four  sisters 
•  listinguished  for  beauty,  charm,  and  intellectual  gifts 
united  to  deep,  personal  piety.  A  ng  less  ardent  Baptist 
than  himself,  Sue  Braxton's  warm,  generous  heart  and 
gracious  personality  made  her  an  exceptional  pastor's 
wife.  Wit,  sunny  unselfishness,  and  unusual  conversa- 
tional gifts  combined  to  make  her  no  less  beloved  by  the 
poorest  negro  than  by  the  polished  and  traveled  citizen 
of  the  world. 

At  his  marriage  George  Taylor  became  pastor  of  the 
struggling,  nascent  church  in  Staunton,  where  Baptists 
were  few  and  little  esteemed.  The  pastor's  intellect  and 
his  wife's  birth  and  social  gifts  entitled  them  to  associate 
with  the  best  people  in  the  beautifully  situated  mountain 
town,  but  they  gave  themselves  with  unremitting  devo- 


192         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

tion  to  the  poor  and  needy  of  their  own  congregation. 
The  husband's  days  were  shared  between  strenuous 
sermon-making  and  pastoral  calls  and  cares.  He  was 
ably  seconded  by  his  wife,  who  never  grudged  a  gracious 
hospitality.  In  the  sixteen  years  which  followed  she 
gave  birth  to  eight  children  and  buried  four.  Besides 
his  duties  to  his  church  the  pastor  preached  frequently 
for  the  colored  people,  for  the  State  Insane  Asylum,  and 
for  the  Deaf,  Dumb,  and  Blind  Institution  located  in 
Staunton.  He  supplemented  his  scant  exchequer  by 
writing  series  of  children's  books  called:  "The  Oakland 
Stories" ;  two  boys'  books,  "Roger  Bernard"  and  "Coster 
Grew,"  and  a  historical  novel  about  the  early  Baptists  of 
Virginia,  "Walter  Ennis,"  all  of  which  have  maintained 
their  place  in  Sunday-school  literature.  Besides  these 
books  he  wrote  several  able  tracts  on  baptism,  Baptist 
history,  and  religious  liberty,  and  held  revivals  to  which 
he  traveled  over  the  country  by  buggy,  horseback,  and 
railroad.  In  the  hard  years  which  followed  the  War  he 
taught  a  boys'  academy  and  several  classes  in  a  girls' 
college.  He  collected  funds  South  and  North  for  Alle- 
ghany  College  and  Richmond  College.  On  these  agency 
trips,  as  later  in  conducting  the  Italian  Mission,  he  used 
the  most  rigid  personal  economy.  He  would  eat  cheap 
meals,  put  up  at  modest  inns,  and  during  winter  weather 
in  New  York  and  Boston,  though  unusually  susceptible 
to  cold,  he  allowed  himself  no  fire  in  his  bedroom,  thaw- 
ing out  his  rigid  fingers  to  hold  a  pen  by  lighting  news- 
papers in  his  wash-basin.  Though  late  in  life  he  doubted 
the  wisdom  of  such  strains  on  a  delicate  physique,  and 
never  exacted  them  from  others,  it  is  bracing  for  a  more 
lax  generation  to  know  of  such  scrupulousness  in  the  use 
of  public  money. 

As  the  early  and  the  latter  rains,  frost,  wind  and  sleet 
are  needed  to  sweeten  and  swell  the  kernel  of  wheat,  so 


GEORGE  BOARDMAX  TAYLOR 

trials  and  cares  chastened  and  developed  the  character 
of  this  man  of  God.  The  loss  of  his  children  struck  him 
as  it  could  not  have  done  a  man  less  sensitive  and  tender, 
and  he  always  maintained  that  nothing  in  life  had  been  so 
terrible  as  the  loss  of  his  firstborn,  Bessie,  who  died  sud- 
denly while  he  was  away  from  home  preaching  to  a  large 
crowd  in  Charlottesville.  His  own  health  was  always 
so  broken  and  frail  that  it  was  a  miracle  to  his  doctors 
and  friends  how  he  survived  to  the  ripe  age  of  seventy - 
five  years.  In  Staunton,  as  later  in  Rome,  church 
anxieties  gave  him  sleepless  nights  and  thorny  days,  and 
the  Italian  Mission  always  had  on  hand  some  distressing 
problem  or  trying  disappointment  to  vex  the  responsible 
head. 

Three  years  after  his  coming  to  Staunton  the  Civil 
War  broke  out.  Though  attached  by  ties  of  kindred 
and  friendship  to  the  North,  he  was  an  ardent  Virginian, 
and  threw  himself  whole-heartedly  into  the  Southern 
cause.  He  was  elected  captain  of  a  home  guard,  but 
very  soon  after  obtained  a  chaplaincy  in  Stonewall 
Jackson's  command.  He  took  a  full  share  in  visiting 
the  hospitals  and  in  the  remarkable  revival  which  swept 
over  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia.  Only  those  who 
endured  it  knew  what  the  War  and  the  years  following 
it  meant  in  privations  and  hardships.  The  pastor  saw 
his  small  supply  of  provisions  mutilated  and  destroyed 
by  an  invading  army,  was  paid  in  Confederate  notes 
or  not  at  all — in  short,  had  his  nose  to  the  grind- 
stone. After  occupying  several  rented  houses  and 
boarding  a  while  he  had  bought  a  house  near  the  church 
for  a  dwelling  and  paid  for  it  with  Confederate  money. 
When  the  War  closed  he  felt  compelled  to  surrender  the 
property,  as  he  could  not  otherwise  make  good  the  loss 
to  the  original  owner.  When  Lee  surrendered  at  App<>- 
mattox,  this  man,  who  had  never  owned  a  slave  and  had 


194         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

dearly  loved  the  old  family  servants  hired  by  his  father, 
lay  down  on  his  face  and  said  he  did  not  want  to  live 
any  longer;  but  with  the  buoyancy  of  a  healthy  nature 
he  soon  took  a  saner  view  and  wrote  to  his  brother :  "In 
times  like  these  we  need  to  be  actively  engaged  to  keep 
from  being  unhappy.  For  my  part,  I  accept  the  facts  as 
indicating  God's  will,  and  acquiesce  with  a  peace  of  mind 
I  had  not  thought  possible.  Perhaps  it  is  a  fulfilment  of 
the  promise:  'As  thy  days  so  shall  thy  strength  be/ 
Still  I  confess  that  ever  and  anon  the  sad  facts  come  over 
me  with  fresh  power  and  almost  crush  and  paralyze  me. 
But  it  is  all  right,  and  we  must  remember  that  we  are 
chiefly  connected  with  a  kingdom  which  is  'not  of  this 
world.'  ...  I  am  not  without  fears  for  the  future. 
The  North  is  now  as  clamorous  for  negro  suffrage  as 
they  were  for  emancipation.  Then  I  fear  for  the  negro 
himself  lest  he  be  crushed  between  the  upper  and  nether 
millstone.  But  I  have  faith  that  God  will  overrule  all 
things  for  the  best  interests  of  His  cause  and  people. 
I  feel  a  deep  solicitude  for  our  late  President, 
and  bear  very  hardly  the  dismemberment  of  our  old 
Mother  State.  But  because  a  Christian,  I  hope  to  be  a 
good  citizen." 

In  1869  he  was  called  to  the  two-year  chaplaincy  of  the 
University  of  Virginia,  and  the  stay  there  was  a  pleasant 
interlude  of  congenial  society  and  profitable  work  for 
both  him  and  his  wife,  who  renewed  old  ties  and  made 
many  valued  friends. 

In  1870  Dr.  Taylor  (the  doctorate  was  conferred  on 
him  simultaneously  by  Richmond  College  and  Chicago 
University)  took  a  three  months'  trip  to  Europe  with  his 
youngest  brother,  and  of  course  his  wide  reading  made 
every  place  he  visited  full  of  stimulating  interest.  With 
characteristic  loyalty  he  sought  out  his  English  cousins 
and  visited  the  little  village  of  Barton-on-Humber,  his 


GEORGE  BOARDMAN  TAYLOR  195 

father's  birthplace,  where  he  stayed  at  the  wee  inn  of  the 
Sheaf  and  Stack ;  just  a  few  years  before  he  had  made 
a  pilgrimage  to  his  wife's  birthplace  on  the  Eastern  Shore 
of  Virginia. 

At  the  end  of  the  term  as  University  chaplain  he  was 
called  enthusiastically  by  his  old  church  to  return  to 
Staunton.  After  somewhat  considering  the  idea  of  going 
to  Lexington  as  pastor  and  as  adjunct  professor  in 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  he  decided  to  return  to 
his  old  charge,  and  was  most  cordially  welcomed  back. 
His  house  was  refurnished  by  the  church,  his  salary  put 
on  a  more  stable  basis,  and  it  seemed  as  if  an  easier 
period  were  beginning  and  a  long  union  with  the  church 
to  follow.  But,  as  he  himself  was  wont  to  quote  with 
a  smile,  "the  Christian  man  is  never  long  at  ease."  Only 
eighteen  months  after  his  return  to  Staunton  a  telegram 
came  from  the  secretary  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board 
which  sharply  changed  the  current  of  his  life.  The  year 
and  a  half  was  chock-full  of  work  and  travel.  Besides 
his  regular  preaching  and  pastoral  work  in  Staunton  he 
taught  three  classes  in  Mr.  Hart's  school  and  wrote  the 
memoir  of  his  beloved  father,  who  had  passed  away  on 
December  21,  1871.  He  suffered  anxiety  over  several 
severe  illnesses  in  his  family,  and  his  wife's  health  began 
to  feel  the  strain  put  upon  it.  Early  in  1873  he  was 
released  by  his  church  to  help  raise  the  $300,000 
Memorial  Endowment  Fund  for  Richmond  College.  It 
was  while  engaged  in  this  work  in  New  York  in  March, 
1873,  that  he  was  startled  by  hearing  from  Dr.  Tupper 
of  his  appointment  as  missionary  of  the  Foreign  Mission 
Board  to  Rome,  Italy.  After  much  consideration  and 
prayer  he  decided  to  undertake  the  task.  The  same  day 
he  bought  an  Italian  grammar  and  began  to  peg  away 
at  the  language.  His  wife  doubted  the  wisdom  of  a 
delicate,  middle-aged  man,  burdened  with  four  young 


196         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

children,  making  an  entirely  new  start  in  life,  but  she  was 
loyal  to  his  decision,  and  \vas  scarcely  less  useful  and 
beloved  in  Rome  than  she  had  been  in  Staunton. 

Dr.  Taylor  attended,  by  request  of  the  Board,  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  in  Mobile  and  the  June 
meeting  in  Richmond.  Then,  on  the  18th  of  June,  1873, 
with  his  wife  and  four  children — the  youngest  an  infant 
of  eight  months — and  two  young  ladies,  who  were  placed 
under  his  care  for  the  journey,  he  embarked  for  Glasgow 
en  route  for  Rome. 

The  Baptist  work  Dr.  Taylor  found  in  Rome  was  a 
small  day-  and  night-school  among  the  poorest  class,  a 
discharged  evangelist,  and  a  missionary  of  the  Board, 
who  was  dismissed  the  week  after  Dr.  Taylor  arrived. 
There  were  evangelists  maintained  by  the  Board  in  other 
parts  of  Italy.  The  English  Baptists,  the  Wesleyans,  the 
American  Methodists,  and  the  Waldensians,  supported 
by  the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  churches  of 
England  and  America,  were  already  at  work.  The 
American  Baptists  came  last  and  were  the  least  desired. 
Close  communion  and  a  man  coming  from  a  slave  State 
were  abominations  to  the  Protestants  already  installed  in 
Italy,  so  there  was  a  double  antagonism  to  meet.  Money 
for  the  work  came  uncertainly  and  irregularly  from 
America.  During  the  first  year  Dr.  Taylor  had  the  news 
of  the  death  of  his  eldest  sister,  and  a  few  years  later  of 
that  of  his  mother.  He  spent  the  winter  studying  Italian 
and  going  nightly  to  the  school  in  Trastevere,  where  he 
began  from  the  first  to  try  and  evangelize  the  boys  and 
youths  in  attendance,  and  in  taking  journeys  to  mission 
stations  already  begun  in  other  places.  During  the 
second  year  he  hired  a  hall  in  a  fine  position  opposite 
to  the  Roman  Parliament  and  began  preaching  services 
with  an  able  evangelist  from  North  Italy.  On  Sunday 
afternoon  there  was  a  popular  singing  meeting  which 


GEORGE  BOARDMAN  TAYLOR  197 

attracted  good  crowds.  A  small  number  of  faithful  and 
sincere  members  were  baptized  at  this  period  and  have 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  Roman  Church  ever  since. 
After  holding  this  hall  for  four  years  Dr.  Taylor  suc- 
ceeded in  purchasing  property  and  adapting  an  old  hall 
for  church  purposes.  This  purchase,  owing  to  the  diffi- 
culty of  getting  property  for  evangelical  uses,  entailed 
several  law  suits,  loss  of  time,  and  much  harassment  and 
worry.  When  it  was  completed  the  Board  called 
!)r.  Taylor  to  America  to  collect  the  money  to  pay  for 
it,  and  he  spent  a  year  doing  this,  traveling  over  a  large 
part  of  the  United  States.  During  this  year  he  suffered 
the  loss  of  one  sister  and  much  pain  and  anxiety  over  the 
-evere  trials  of  another.  Malaria,  contracted  in  Italy, 
also  gave  him  much  trouble.  During  the  first  five  win- 
ters in  Rome  his  family  occupied  successive  furnished 
apartments  and  spent  their  summers  in  Tuscany  and  in 
the  Waldensian  Valleys,  where  there  was  one  mission  sta- 
tion. Dr.  Taylor  himself  spent  much  of  his  time  in  sum- 
mer in  Rome  and  Naples  and  in  traveling  for  the  work, 
visiting  the  evangelists  and  work  gradually  established 
throughout  the  continent  and  the  islands  of  Sardinia  and 
Sicily.  After  the  chapel  in  Rome  was  finished  Dr.  Tay- 
lor occupied  for  three  years  an  unpretending  apartment 
in  the  same  building,  which  was  afterwards  used  by 
Signor  Paschetto  and  his  family.  In  1884  Mrs.  Taylor 
died  very  suddenly  of  laryngitis,  and  her  husband  and 
children  sustained  the  most  profound  loss  possible  to 
them.  From  that  time  on  the  father  became,  if  possible, 
more  solicitous  and  tender  to  his  children,  seeking  to 
atone  to  them  for  the  want  of  their  mother  and  to  com- 
fort his  own  widowed  heart. 

Following  a  plan,  formed  with  his  wife,  in  order  that 
their  children  might  not  be  quite  alienated  from  their 
native  country.  Dr.  Taylor,  in  1885,  obtained  a  furlough 


198         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

from  the  Italian  Mission  and  accepted,  for  the  second 
time,  the  chaplaincy  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  where 
he  was  no  less  appreciated  than  he  had  been  fifteen  years 
before,  and  keenly  enjoyed  the  society  of  Noah  K.  Davis 
and  other  congenial  professors.  At  the  end  of  the  two 
years  Dr.  Taylor  returned,  with  his  two  daughters,  to 
Rome,  and  as  the  apartment  on  the  mission  property  was 
rented  he  took  a  small,  sunny,  unfurnished  apartment  at 
the  foot  of  the  Capitol,  which  he  occupied  until  his  death 
twenty  years  later.  Soon  after  his  return  to  Italy  he 
wrote,  for  the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society,  a 
book  on  "Italy  and  the  Italians."  The  large  and  harass- 
ing correspondence  entailed  by  the  administration  of  the 
work,  and  journeys  over  Italy,  occupied  the  time,  which 
was  much  broken  by  bad  health. 

At  the  stately  800th  anniversary  of  the  Bologna  Uni- 
versity Dr.  Taylor  represented  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  enjoyed  meeting  Philip  Schafr",  who  was  also 
there  as  a  representative.  All  the  prejudice  against  him, 
which  had  attended  Dr.  Taylor's  coming  to  Italy,  was 
more  than  overcome  by  his  real  Christlikeness  and 
brotherly  spirit,  which  he  was  able  to  manifest  without 
any  sacrifice  of  doctrine  or  peculiar  principle.  Twice 
again  Dr.  Taylor  went  to  America  for  short  visits  to  his 
sons,  one  a  pastor  in  Virginia  and  the  other  a  surgeon  in 
the  United  States  Navy. 

Dr.  Taylor  suggested  to  the  Board  the  advisability  of 
establishing  a  Baptist  Theological  School  in  Rome,  and 
it  was  done,  Dexter  G.  Whittinghill,  Th.  D.,  being 
appointed  and  sent  out  to  dedicate  himself  particularly  to 
this  work.  Dr.  Taylor  took  the  liveliest  interest  in  this 
new  feature,  which  he  felt  was  much  needed.  He  taught 
in  the  school  until  his  death,  and  wrote  for  it  a  modest 
but  clear  and  concise  manual  in  Italian  on  "Systematic 
Theology."  The  chapter  on  baptism  was  considered 


GEORGE  BOARDMAN  TAYLOR 

particularly  good,  and  was  republished  separately  by  the 
ministers  of  the  Southern  branch  of  the  Italian  evangel- 
ists as  the  best  possible  statement  of  the  question.  In  the 
early  years  of  his  life  in  Italy  Dr.  Taylor  edited,  with  an 
Italian  minister,  an  Italian  monthly  called  The  Sower, 
and  later  he  united  with  the  English  Baptists  to  produce 
a  weekly  organ  called  The  Witness,  which  is  still  pub- 
lished. He  wrote  frequently  for  both  papers,  as  well  as 
in  English  for  The  Watchman,  The  Examiner,  The 
Religions  Herald,  The  Foreign  Mission  Journal,  and 
other  publications.  While  striving  to  make  each  article 
a  work  of  art,  he  tried  no  less  to  make  them  a  true 
picture,  and  did  much  to  arouse  interest  in  the  Italian 
work  for  which  he  had  the  affection  consequent  on 
personal  sacrifice  and  devotion.  While  his  sensitive 
organization  made  him  keenly  susceptible  to  heat  and 
cold  and  to  every  jar,  he  was  no  less  alive  to  natural  and 
spiritual  beauty.  He  loved  nature,  and  took  the  most 
exquisite  delight  in  English  literature  and  the  keenest 
interest  in  the  history  and  politics  of  the  whole  world. 
As  his  physical  strength  abated  and  his  bodily  powers 
decreased,  his  piety,  loving-kindness  and  generosity 
widened.  He  grew  each  day  more  anxious  to  give  to 
others,  not  only  their  just  due,  but  a  measure  pressed 
down  and  overflowing.  He  was  hospitable  in  a  double 
sense,  hospitable  as  it  is  enjoined  on  the  bishop  to  be 
with  bed  and  board,  and  in  that  rarer  hospitality  of  the 
mind  to  new  ideas  and  new  people.  His  personal  letters 
had  a  peculiar  charm,  and  were  written  in  small,  clear 
characters  which  compressed  matter  and  saved  space. 
As  a  preacher  he  felt  the  importance  of  his  message  in 
his  own  personal  experience,  and  exemplified  the  "beauty 
of  holiness"  in  a  constant  striving  after  the  divine  life. 
Deafness  contracted  during  his  second  chaplaincy  at  the 
University,  from  getting  overheated  in  preaching  and 


200         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

going  out  into  the  snow,  was  a  severe  trial,  and  cut  him 
off  in  a  way  especially  trying  to  a  man  so  social.  But  it 
was  wonderful  how,  as  he  grew  older,  his  saintly  and 
loving  influence  overcame  even  such  "bars  of  the  prison 
house."  During  the  last  two  years  he  was  one  of  the 
commission  for  the  Revision  of  the  Italian  New  Testa- 
ment, and,  though  really  ill  and  fast  failing  in  bodily 
strength,  he  worked  over  it  constantly  and  took  the  deep- 
est interest  in  it.  Though  possessing  few  of  the  graces 
of  oratory,  he  prepared  carefully  and  was  an  able  and 
compelling  speaker,  eloquent  in  the  sense  of  the  defi- 
nition :  "Thought  packed  until  it  ignites,"  and  with  a 
force  of  conviction  which  must  always  tell  on  the  hearer. 
To  the  end  he  took  the  keenest  interest  in  life  and  the 
future,  but  sleeplessness  and  constant  suffering  wore  the 
delicate  frame  to  gossamer,  so  that  those  who  loved  him 
best  felt  that  it  would  be  cruel  to  wish  for  him  to  stay 
longer.  He  died  on  the  28th  of  September,  1907,  and 
his  body  was  laid  beside  his  wife's  in  the  lovely  cemetery 
for  strangers  under  the  crumbling  city  walls  of  Rome. 
His  children,  who  survived  him,  are  Geo.  Braxton,  Mary 
Argyle,  James  Spotswood,  and  Susie  Braxton  (Mrs. 
D.  G.  Whittinghill). 

Mary  Argyle  Taylor. 


WILLIAM  N.  BUCKLES 
1834-1908 

Carter  County,  which  touches  North  Carolina,  and  is 
<>ne  of  the  extreme  eastern  counties  of  Tennessee,  was 
the  birthplace,  of  William  X.  Buckles.  Here  he  was 
horn  September  24,  1834.  Just  one  month,  to  a  day, 
after  he  had  reached  his  majority  he  was  baptized  into 
the  fellowship  of  the  Old  Holston  Baptist  Church, 
Tennessee.  Two  years  later  his  mother  church  licensed 
him  to  preach,  and  in  1862  he  was  ordained  to  the  full 
\\nrk  of  the  gospel  ministry.  At  the  very  beginning  of 
the  Civil  War  he  enlisted,  belonging  to  First  Company 
K,  Third  Regiment  of  Tennessee  Volunteers,  being  under 
Colonel  John  C.  Vaughan.  To  the  end  of  the  War, 
either  as  chaplain  or  as  colporteur  or  as  private  soldier, 
Mr.  Buckles  served,  filling  the  place  to  which  duty 
seemed  to  point.  When  the  War  was  over,  realizing 
that  he  needed  better  preparation  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  he  entered,  although  he  was  now  over  thirty 
years  of  age,  the  Academy  at  Bluntville,  Term.,  and 
remained  there  as  a  student  for  three  sessions.  In  1868 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Seraphine  Pyle,  of  Sullivan 
County,  Tennessee.  This  proved  a  blessed  union,  marked 
by  happiness  and  love.  Four  children  were  born,  three 
of  whom,  with  their  mother,  survived  the  husband  and 
father. 

For  some  time  Mr.  Buckles  wrought  as  pastor  and 
oilporteur  in  East  Tennessee,  serving  a  number  of 
churches  and  organizing  the  Holston  Valley  Church, 
which  body  he  led  in  the  building  of  a  house  of  worship. 
In  1876  he  came  to  Virginia,  where  the  rest  of  his  life 

201 


202         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

was  spent.  He  located  in  Russell  County  and  became 
pastor  of  the  Lebanon,  Bethel,  and  Honaker  Churches. 
On  to  the  end  of  his  life  his  service  was  in  the  New 
Lebanon  Association,  his  residence  being  part  of  the  time 
at  or  near  Bristol.  Before  the  close  of  his  work  came, 
the  other  churches  to  which  he  had  ministered  were 
Lewis  Creek,  Oak  Grove,  Castlewood,  Pleasant  Hill, 
Green  Valley,  Liberty  Hill,  and  Cedar  Grove.  "For  a 
number  of  years  he  was  the  moderator  of  the  New 
Lebanon  Association,  and  wisely  led  his  brethren  in  the 
work."  In  the  gloaming  of  Sunday,  February  2,  1908, 
he  fell  on  sleep.  The  following  Tuesday  afternoon,  in 
the  presence  of  a  multitude  of  friends,  the  funeral 
services  were  conducted  by  Rev.  T.  A.  Hall.  The  body 
was  laid  to  rest  in  the  Bethel  Cemetery  (Russell  County), 
a  great  company  of  people  being  present.  Concerning 
this  servant  of  God,  Rev.  C.  E.  Stuart,  in  his  obituary, 
says :  "In  this  day  of  glorious  harvest  we  can  never 
thank  God  too  much  for  these  pioneer  missionaries  of  the 
cross." 


MORTON  BRYAN  WHARTON 

1839-1908 

Although  the  larger  part  of  the  ministry  of  Morton 
Bryan  Wharton  was  given  to  other  sections  of  the 
country,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  he  was  born  and 
educated  in  Virginia,  and  that  here  he  held,  for  some 
eight  years,  an  important  pastorate.  No  one  could  look 
upon  the  picture  of  Dr.  Wharton,  in  the  Minutes  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  for  1909,  without  being 
impressed  by  the  signs  of  intellectual  power  in  his  face; 
the  brow  was  high  and  broad,  the  mouth  well  formed 
and  clear  cut,  and  the  flash  of  the  eyes  brilliant  and 
strong.  At  this  same  meeting  of  the  Convention,  which 
was  held  in  Louisville,  Ky.,  an  address  on  his  life  and 
work  was  delivered  by  Rev.  Dr.  J.  A.  French.  The 
official  relationship  that  he  bore  to  the  Convention  was 
that,  in  1873,  at  Mobile,  Ala.,  he  was  one  of  the  secre- 
taries. This  son  of  Virginia,  who  was  most  gifted  and 
versatile,  was  born  in  Culpeper  County,  April  5,  1839, 
being  the  son  of  Malcom  Hart  Wharton  and  Susan 
Roberts  Colvin.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  was  con1 
verted,  at  Alexandria,  Va.,  and  united  with  the  Baptist 
Church  of  that  city.  In  October,  1858,  he  entered  Rich- 
mond College,  where  he  remained  through  the  session  of 
1860-61.  His  first  pastorate  was  at  Bristol,  Tenn.,  where 
he  labored  for  two  years.  During  the  other  years  of  the 
War  he  was  evangelist  in  the  army,  under  Rev.  A.  E. 
Dickinson,  and,  later,  agent  in  Georgia  to  collect  funds 
for  the  Virginia  Army  Colportage  Board.  At  this  period 
of  his  life  he  was  also,  for  a  time,  the  agent  of  the 
Domestic  and  Indian  Mission  Board,  of  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention. 

203 


204         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

After  the  War  he  became  pastor  of  Eufaula,  a  church 
he  was  destined  to  serve  a  second  time  at  the  end  of  his 
life.  Here  in  his  two  pastorates  he  erected  two  hand- 
some meeting-houses,  and  here  has  been  set  up,  since  his 
death,  in  front  of  the  building  in  which  he  preached,  a 
monument  of  him.  His  other  pastorates  were  Walnut 
Street,  Louisville,  Ky. ;  First  Church  (Green  Street), 
Augusta,  Ga. ;  First  Church,  Montgomery,  Ala. ;  Free- 
mason Street,  Norfolk,  Va.  In  this  period,  however, 
there  were  several  seasons  when  other  work  than  that  of 
the  pastor  and  the  preacher  engaged  his  powers.  He 
gave  himself  for  some  years  to  an  agency  for  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  his  field  being 
Georgia.  Gifted  as  a  speaker,  with  eloquence,  humor, 
and  pathos,  he  must  have  been  well-nigh  irresistible  in 
his  appeals  for  this  school  of  the  prophets.  Although  of 
compact  build,  and  apparently  vigorous  physically,  more 
than  once  he  turned  aside  from  the  heavy  pressure  of 
the  pastorate  because  of  broken  health.  Once,  having 
purchased  the  Christian  Index,  he  filled  the  editor's  chair. 
Another  break  in  his  pastoral  career  was  when  he  spent 
several  years  in  Germany  as  United  States  Consul  at 
Sonneberg. 

On  August  6,  1881,  he  reached  Sonneberg  and  began 
his  work  as  consul.  He  described  the  duties  of  a  consul, 
at  an  interior  town,  as  consisting  "chiefly  in  the  certifica- 
tion of  invoices,  notarial  acts,  issuing  passports,  extend- 
ing protection  to  American  citizens,  looking  after  prop- 
erty of  American  citizens  who  die  abroad,  and  writing 
monthly  reports,  to  the  Secretary  of  State  at  Washing- 
ton, on  agricultural  and  commercial  and  other  interests, 
designed  for  publication  by  the  State  Department."  The 
shipments  from  Sonneberg,  at  that  time,  ran  up  to  the 
sum  of  nearly  two  millions  of  dollars,  and  consisted 
mainly  of  dolls,  toys,  musical  instruments,  china,  glass- 


MORTON  BRYAN  WHARTOX  305 

ware,  hosiery,  paints,  and  drugs.  There  were  in  the  town 
and  the  surrounding  villages  over  two  hundred  factories. 
While  the  consul's  office  \vas  at  Sonneberg,  his  residence 
was  at  Tolmrg.  This  city,  with  its  castle,  palaces,  parks, 
mausoleum,  and  schools  and  private  homes,  Dr.  Whar- 
ton  described  as  the  "most  beautiful  place  I  have  ever 
seen."  While  here,  he  had  services  every  Sunday  in  his 
own  residence  and  instructed  the  children  in  the  Sunday 
school.  His  purpose  in  accepting  this  position  as  consul 
wa>  not  to  abandon  the  ministry  but  to  secure  a  season 
of  rest,  to  educate  his  children,  and  to  see  Europe  under 
favorable  circumstances. 

In  his  brief  pastorate  of  less  than  a  year  at  Augusta 
he  succeeded  Dr.  James  Dixon.  During  these  ten  months 
some  seventy  were  received  into  the  church,  the  meeting- 
house was  renovated  and  enlarged,  and  two  new  churches 
were  constituted.  At  the  rededication  of  the  improved 
church-house  Dr.  J.  A.  Broadus  was  the  preacher,  his 
subject  being  "The  Woman  of  Samaria,  or  Worship." 
While  pastor  at  Augusta  he  baptized  Rev.  J.  Q.  Adams. 
When  he  went  to  Augusta  the  understanding  was  that,  as 
his  health  was  not  good,  he  was  not  to  preach  but  once 
a  day.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  he  preached  twice 
every  Sunday  while  there.  His  health  did  not  improve 
in  Augusta,  so  he  resigned  to  go  to  Germany.  An  idea 
of  the  great  energy  of  the  man  is  secured  when  it  is  seen 
that,  though  far  from  at  his  best,  he  did  so  much. 

Dr.  Wharton  was  an  author,  and  had  the  poet's  vision 
and  power  of  expression.  When  the  Southern  Baptist 
Convention  met  in  Norfolk,  Va.,  and  was  holding  its 
sessions  at  the  Freemason  Street  Church,  where  Dr. 
Wharton  was  pastor,  he  made  the  address  of  welcome. 
This  address  was  an  original  poem,  and  its  delivery,  what 
with  Dr.  Wharton's  musical  voice  and  magnetic  presence, 
charmed  the  audience.  One  of  his  books,  "Pictures  from 


206         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

a  Pastorium,"  is  a  volume  of  poems.  His  other  volumes 
are:  "Men  of  the  Old  Testament,"  "Women  of  the  Old 
Testament,"  "Women  of  the  New  Testament,"  and 
"European  Notes."  In  this  connection  it  should  be 
remembered  that  Dr.  Wharton  coined  the  word  "pas- 
torium"  as  a  name  to  be  used,  especially  by  Baptists,  to 
describe  the  church's  home  for  her  pastor.  The  word  has 
been  given  place  in  the  "Standard  Dictionary."  He  was 
singularly  gifted  as  a  writer  and  as  a  speaker,  and  was 
scholarly  in  his  aptitudes.  He  received  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Washington  and  Lee  Uni- 
versity, and  that  of  Doctor  of  Laws  from  the  University 
of  Alabama. 

A  few  days  before  his  death,  which  took  place  at 
Atlanta,  Ga.,  July  20,  1908,  he  assured  his  brother, 
Dr.  H.  M.  Wharton,  that  his  life  work  was  finished  and 
that  he  was  ready  and  willing  to  go.  His  wife,  to  whom 
he  was  married  August  2,  1864,  and  who  before  her 
marriage  was  Miss  Mary  Belle  Irwin  (daughter  of 
Rev.  Dr.  C.  M.  Irwin),  survives  him,  and  also  a 
daughter,  Mrs.  John  M.  Moon. 


FRANK  BROWN  BEALE 

1852-1908 

The  fourth  son  of  General  R.  L.  T.  and  Lucy  M. 
Beale,  Frank  Brown  Beale,  was  born  near  The  Hague, 
HI  Westmoreland  County,  Virginia,  on  April  11,  1852, 
and  named  for  a  maternal  uncle — a  beloved  physician- 
Frank  Brown.  Remarkable  for  his  diminutive  size,  as 
a  babe,  he  was  no  less  remarkable  for  his  development 
into  an  active,  vigorous,  energetic  boy.  He  early  dis- 
played great  enthusiasm  and  aptitude  for  physical  sports 
and  athletic  exercises,  and  gave  promise  in  boyhood  of 
the  vigor  and  endurance  which  marked  him  in  his  future 
labors. 

His  education,  begun  under  an  elder  brother,  whose 
school  he  attended  two  sessions,  was  continued  near  his 
home,  and  later  at  an  academy  conducted  by  Judge  Cole- 
man  in  Caroline  County.  Before  attending  this  school, 
in  the  summer  of  1869,  he  openly  confessed  Christ  at 
Machodoc  Church,  and  was  baptized  by  his  brother. 
While  still  a  student,  in  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age, 
without  conferring  with  flesh  or  blood,  he  announced,  in 
a  brief  note  sent  to  the  Religious  Herald,  his  resolve  to 
devote  his  life  to  the  ministry  of  the  gospel. 

He  spent  two  sessions  at  Richmond  College,  and,  at  the 
call  of  his  mother  church,  was  ordained  on  November 
16,  1873.  Elders  Wm.  H.  Kirk,  Wayland  F.  Dunaway, 
Geo.  H.  Northam,  and  Geo.  W.  Beale  took  part  in  the 
ordaining  service.  Dr.  Thomas  S.  Dunaway,  his  revered 
friend,  sent  the  charge  prepared  for  the  occasion,  since 
he  was  unable  to  be  present. 

His  ministry  began  at  once  with  Menokin,  Nomini, 
and  Machodoc  Churches,  and  the  divine  favor  rested 

207 


208         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

signally  on  his  labors.  Soon  after  beginning  his  work 
on  this  field  he  was  induced  to  hold  night  services  in  the 
town  of  Tappahannock,  where  the  old  Episcopal  Church 
edifice  of  Colonial  days  was  in  use  for  Baptist  preaching. 
Despite  the  increased  mental  and  physical  labor  required, 
the  necessity  of  crossing  the  river  in  a  small  boat — often 
under  adverse  conditions  of  weather — and  other  diffi- 
culties, this  work  enlisted  his  warmest  interest,  and  he 
gave  to  it  the  ardent  enthusiasm  of  his  nature,  with  the 
result  that,  in  1876,  a  church  was  organized,  the  old 
courthouse  purchased,  renovated,  and  dedicated,  and  the 
spiritual  body  and  place  of  worship  were  styled  Centen- 
nial. With  but  a  brief  interval  this  church,  in  which  he 
felt  a  peculiar  joy,  shared  his  ministration  and  grew 
under  his  care  until  failing  health  terminated  his  work, 
in  May,  1908.  He  was  permitted  to  see  their  number 
increase  to  117,  a  parsonage  provided,  and  the  church 
become  strong  in  the  intelligence,  piety,  and  liberality  of 
their  membership.  While  connected  with  his  first  pas- 
toral charge  he  attended  lectures  for  one  session  at  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  the  churches 
having  generously  released  him  to  do  so,  and  at  the  same 
time  retaining  him  as  pastor  and  paying  his  salary. 

Before  leaving  his  home  in  Westmoreland  he  married, 
in  December,  1882,  Miss  Susie  Garnett  (daughter  of 
Dr.  John  M.  Garnett,  of  Newtown),  a  union  which 
proved  one  of  unalloyed  happiness  to  him  and  gave  him 
a  companion  whose  charm  of  person,  Christian  woman- 
hood, and  sweet  graces  of  character  greatly  strengthened 
his  hand  and  blessed  his  ministry.  As  the  fruits  of  this 
union  his  home  was  brightened  with  a  daughter  and  a 
son,  both  of  whom  survive. 

In  1889  he  resigned  the  care  of  the  churches  in  the 
Northern  Neck,  which  he  had  served  for  fourteen  years, 
and  located  in  Tappahannock  as  pastor  of  Ephesus 


FRANK  BROWN   BEALE  -;'  '(> 

Church  in  conjunction  with  Centennial.  The  can 
Ephesus  was  held  for  three  years,  when  he  accepted  that 
of  Howerton's,  and  in  1892  that  of  Upper  King  and 
Queen,  the  latter  being  the  well-trained  body  which  had 
enjoyed  the  pastoral  nurture  and  leadership  of  the  t\\" 
Andrew  Broadduses  for  many  years.  In  this  field — Cen- 
tennial, Howerton's,  and  Upper  King  and  Queen- 
numbering  approximately  five  hundred  members,  he  \\a> 
in  the  position  in  which  he  was  destined  to  toil  for  sixteen 
years  and  to  accomplish  his  best  work.  These  churches 
steadily  grew  in  strength,  in  efficiency,  and  in  liberality 
to  the  cause  of  Christ,  under  his  guidance,  and  the 
relationship  between  them  and  their  pastor  continued  t«> 
the  last,  fraternal,  cordial,  and  tender.  The  striking  ele- 
ments of  his  success  were  his  intense  and  unwearied 
earnestness,  the  breadth  and  warmth  of  his  sympathies, 
and  the  unfailing  cordiality  of  his  manners.  These  made 
him  ready  to  respond  to  every  call  of  pastoral  duty,  and 
to  visit  the  sick,  comfort  the  sorrowing,  and  to  render 
the  last  sad  rites  of  burial  within,  and  often  beyond,  the 
bounds  of  his  own  field. 

Amidst  the  multiplied  activities  of  his  pastorates  he 
still  found  occasions  to  aid  other  pastors  in  special  meet- 
ings, and  in  many  parts  of  the  State  and  beyond  its 
bounds  his  labors  were  blessed  in  the  conversion  of 
hundreds  of  souls,  and  many  a  mature  Christian  along 
the  track  of  these  labors  gratefully  acknowledged  that 
he  derived  from  his  earnest  spirit  and  burning  words 
impulses  towards  a  higher  and  holier  life. 

Our  brother  was  for  thirty-five  years  a  member  of  the 
Rappahannock  Association,  and  during  this  long  period 
was  never  absent  from  one  of  its  annual  sessions.  He 
served  this  body  as  clerk  for  over  twenty  years,  and 
became  a  recognized  and  trusted  leader  in  its  affairs. 
His  deep  interest,  sound  judgment,  fervid  speech,  and 


14 


210         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

cordial  manner  bound  the  brotherhood  to  him  in  con- 
fiding and  tender  bonds.  When  death  removed  him  from 
them  they  placed  on  their  minutes  this  testimonial  to  his 
work :  "The  Rappahannock  Association  has  sustained  no 
greater  loss  in  thirty  years  or  more ;  we  shall  not  soon 
see  his  like  again."  He  was  scarcely  less  interested  in 
the  General  Association  and  its  work,  and  had  become  a 
familiar  figure  in  its  sessions.  He  served  often  on 
important  committees  in  that  body,  and  his  voice  was 
not  infrequently  heard  in  addresses  and  discussions 
before  it. 

For  a  year  or  more  previous  to  his  death  he  showed 
symptoms  of  failing  health,  but  his  ever-sanguine  and 
hopeful  temperament  forbade  his  looking  upon  his  con- 
dition as  serious.  A  fatal  malady,  however,  was  insidi- 
ously preying  upon  his  vitals,  and  in  the  spring  of  1908 
his  loss  of  flesh,  frequent  inability  to  retain  his  food, 
and  growing  weakness  made  the  suspension  of  his  work 
imperative.  All  that  the  tenderest  care  of  friends,  the 
thoughtful  kindness  of  his  churches,  the  skill  of  phy- 
sicians, and  the  change  of  scene  could  do,  was  done  for 
his  relief;  but  it  was  God's  will  that  he  should  lay  his 
armor  down  and  exchange  his  cross  for  his  crown,  and 
after  weeks  of  increasing  debility,  without  suffering  or 
loss  of  his  serene  and  cheerful  composure,  on  the  after- 
noon of  July  31,  1908,  he  gently  and  calmly  fell  on  sleep. 

His  burial  was  made  at  Upper  King  and  Queen 
Meeting-House,  and  the  funeral  services,  on  a  sweet 
Lord's  Day  morning,  drew  together  a  sympathetic  multi- 
tude, amongst  whom  were  hundreds  whose  moistened 
cheeks  and  irrepressible  sobs  betokened  their  sense  of 
grief  and  loss.  His  intimate  friend  and  beloved  co- 
laborer,  Andrew  Broaddus,  delivered  the  sermon,  in  the 
course  of  which  he  said :  "He  was  so  good,  so  noble,  so 
brave,  so  tender  and  true,  so  inexpressibly  dear  to  me 


FRANK  BROWN  BEALE  211 

that  I  know  not  how  to  speak.  I  am  overwhelmed,  I  am 
crushed,  I  am  broken-hearted.  ...  As  I  think  of 
his  life,  so  crowded  with  work,  so  rich  with  achievements, 
so  fragrant  with  grace  and  godliness,  my  first  thought  is 
what  a  blessing  he  has  been  to  the  world.  When  God 
called  Abraham  to  go  forth  from  kindred  and  country, 
his  parting  injunction  to  him  was:  'Be  thou  a  blessing,' 
and  so  I  think  when  He  called  Frank  Beale  to  his  life's 
work  He  gave  him  the  same  command.  How  faithfully 
he  kept  it !" 

While  he  reclined  on  his  couch  of  illness,  and  the 
deepening  shadows  gathered,  the  Trustees  of  Richmond 
College  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  title  of  D.  D., 
and  when  he  had  been  laid  to  his  rest  Upper  King  and 
(Jueen  Church,  and  other  friends,  placed  a  monument  at 
his  grave;  Centennial  Church  commemorated  him  by 
changing  its  name  to  Beale  Memorial ;  Menokin  Church 
paid  him  the  tribute  of  a  marble  tablet  beside  the  pulpit, 
and  the  Maryland  Avenue  Church,  of  Washington,  D.  C, 
held  a  memorial  service  in  his  honor.  Thus  approved 
and  honored  of  men,  he  passed  to  the  high  reward  of 
those  who,  having  "turned  many  to  righteousness,"  "shall 
shine  as  the  brightness  of  the  firmament"  and  "as  the 
-tars  forever  and  ever." 

G.  W.  Bede. 


I.  T.  KERN 
—1908 

The  obituary  in  the  Minutes  of  the  General  Associa- 
tion of  Virginia  furnishes  the  only  information  secured 
about  the  life  of  Rev.  I.  T.  Kern.  His  father  was  the 
Rev.  Isaac  Kern,  who  for  fifty-four  years  preached  the 
gospel  in  the  bounds  of  the  Clinch  Valley  Association, 
Southwest  Virginia,  the  same  section  in  which  his  son 
preached  for  fourteen  years.  The  son,  whose  death 
occurred  about  the  end  of  the  summer  1908,  was  a  good 
and  faithful  minister  of  Christ.  The  obituary  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  General  Association  was  prepared  by 
Rev.  J.  B.  Craft. 


212 


JOHN  BROADUS  TURPIN 
1848-1909 

John  Broadus  Turpin  was  born  at  "Woodwell,"  Hen- 
ncn  County,  Virginia,  the  home  of  his  maternal  grand- 
father, Jesse  Frayser  Keesee,  September  28,  1848.  His 
father's  father  was  Rev.  Miles  Turpin,  whose  name  is 
associated  with  Four  Mile  Creek  Baptist  Church,  his  only 
pastorate.  His  parents  were  Elisha  Straughan  Turpin 
and  Elizabeth  Keesee.  When  he  was  five  years  old  his 
parents  moved  to  Richmond.  He  attended  school,  as  a 
lx>y,  in  Richmond,  and  was  a  diligent  scholar.  As  he 
passed  from  boyhood  to  youth  he  was  able  to  escape  the 
temptations  of  this  period  of  life,  and  one  who  knew 
him  well  testifies  that  "no  impure  word  ever  escaped  his 
lips,  no  doubtful  associations  soiled  his  life."  While  still 
a  youth  he  made  a  profession  of  religion  and  was  bap- 
tized into  the  fellowship  of  the  Leigh  Street  Baptist 
i  'hurch  by  the  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  B.  Solomon.  A  little 
later  he,  with  two  other  youths,  S.  C.  Clopton  and  J.  A. 
i  rench,  came  into  fine  fellowship  and  friendship  during 
a  great  meeting  in  the  pastorate  of  Rev.  Dr.  A.  E.  Dick- 
inson. While  still  a  youth  he  manifested  great  interest 
in  public  speaking  and  talent  in  that  direction.  He  loved 
to  frequent  the  court  room,  where  he  heard  many  of  the 
ablest  lawyers  of  the  day.  In  a  Temperance  Society  of 
the  Leigh  Street  Sunday  School,  and  in  the  Church  Hill 
Literary  Society  he  took  an  active  part.  Although  at 
this  period  of  his  life  he  was  for  a  season  a  clerk  in  the 
hardware  store  of  James  L.  Porter,  17th  and  Franklin 
Streets,  his  ambition  pointed  to  a  path  in  which  public 
speaking  was  important.  Soon  he  decided  to  be  a  lawyer. 

213 


214         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

With  this  hope  he  entered  Richmond  College.  A  spell 
of  sickness  having  prevented  his  completing  the  academic 
course,  he  became  a  member  of  the  law  class,  and  in  1871 
received,  along  with  C.  V.  Meredith  and  others,  his  B.  L. 
diploma.  At  the  same  commencement  J.  E.  L.  Holmes 
won  his  B.  A.  degree.  He  and  Mr.  Turpin,  during  their 
student  days,  had  established  in  Fulton,  a  section  of 
Richmond,  a  German  Sunday  School. 

The  young  lawyer  set  out  upon  his  chosen  profession. 
Before  long,  however,  he  was  laid  low  by  a  very  severe 
spell  of  illness.  His  life  hung  in  the  balance.  He  came 
near  to  the  gates  of  death.  Public  prayers  were  offered 
for  his  recovery.  Upon  his  restoration  to  health  he 
informed  his  loved  ones  that  during  his  illness  he  had 
made  a  vow  that  if  his  life  was  spared  he  would  become 
a  minister  of  the  gospel.  He  at  once  took  steps  to  keep 
his  vow.  He  abandoned  the  law,  and,  without  any  train- 
ing at  a  theological  seminary,  began  to  preach.  He 
supplied  for  a  season,  first  at  a  church  in  King  William 
County,  and  then  for  Dr.  Thomas  Hume,  Jr.,  the  pastor 
of  the  First  Church  of  Danville,  Va.  Shortly  after 
Mr.  Turpin  decided  to  become  a  preacher,  Rev.  A.  H. 
Sands  congratulated  him  on  the  change  he  was  making, 
saying  that  it  was  harder  to  preach  than  to  be  a  lawyer. 
Mr.  Turpin  replied  that  doubtless  to  do  both  was  still 
harder.  (Mr.  Sands  was  for  a  time  both  preacher  and 
lawyer. ) 

Upon  being  called  to  the  Black  Walnut  field,  in  Hali- 
fax County,  Virginia,  his  ordination  to  the  ministry  took 
place,  at  Leigh  Street  Baptist  Church,  June  22,  1873. 
Dr.  J.  L.  Burrows  preached  the  sermon,  his  text  being 
Acts  9:20;  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter  delivered  the  charge,  Prof. 
H.  H.  Harris  made  the  prayer,  and  Dr.  J.  R.  Garlick 
delivered  the  Bible.  The  following  fall,  on  November 
13,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Susie  Lamar  Curry,  the 
only  daughter  of  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry.  Mr.  Turpia 


JOHN  BROADUS  TURPIN  215 

remained  in  the  Halifax  pastorate  some  five  years,  until 
he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Baptist  Church  in  Warrenton, 
Va.,  to  succeed  Dr.  John  L.  Carroll.  Here  another  five 
years  were  spent,  and  here  Mr.  Turpin  exhibited  some 
characteristics  which  were  to  be  important  factors  in  his 
subsequent  career.  We  see  him  at  Warrenton  organizing 
his  young  people  for  Bible  study  and  Christian  work. 
Remember  that  this  was  before  the  days  of  Christian 
Endeavor  and  B.  Y.  P.  U.  Societies.  He  always  had 
great  success  in  reaching  and  training  children  and  young 
people  of  his  churches.  He  deserves  the  credit  of  having 
organized  the  first  young  people's  society  in  Virginia,  at 
least  in  the  Baptist  ranks.  While  in  Warrenton  he  suf- 
fered a  great  sorrow  in  the  death  of  his  wife.  She  left 
two  children,  Mary  Lamar  and  Manly  Curry. 

On  July  4,  1884,  Mr.  Turpin  accepted  a  call  to  the 
Charlottesville  Baptist  Church.  In  Charlottesville  he  did 
his  real  life  work.  He  was  pastor  here  twice,  first  for 
twelve  years  and  then  for  eight  years.  Between  these 
two  terms  of  service  in  Charlottesville  was  a  pastorate 
of  two  and  a  half  years  in  Americus,  Ga.,  and  another 
at  Carrollton,  Mo.  The  fact  that  he  was  twice  pastor 
in  Charlottesville,  each  time  for  so  many  years,  is  a  sug- 
gestive commentary  on  the  character  of  his  work  in  this 
university  town.  This  church  had  had  such  remarkably 
able  pastors  as  Wm.  F.  Broaddus,  Jno.  A.  Broadus,  and 
Jno.  C.  Long,  and  a  mile  away  was  the  University  of 
Virginia.  Mr.  Turpin  was  a  decided  success  in  his  work 
in  Charlottesville.  He  could  scarcely  be  called  a  great 
preacher,  but  he  was  unquestionably  a  great  pastor.  He 
had  great  tact,  he  was  interested  in  people,  he  remem- 
bered faces  and  names,  he  was  systematic  and  unceasing 
in  his  work,  he  was  cordial  in  his  manner,  he  was  skilful 
in  organization,  he  was  careful  as  to  his  dress,  he  knew 
how  to  reach  young  people  and  children,  he  was  consider- 
ate of  others.  Above  and  beyond  all  these  things,  he  had 


216         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

the  ''shepherd  heart,"  and  he  loved  God  and  his  neighbor. 
He  was  a  great  believer  in  tracts,  which  have  been  called 
the  side  arms  in  Christian  work  and  warfare,  and  he 
always  kept  a  good  supply  of  them  on  hand,  having  them 
so  arranged  in  pigeonholes  as  to  be  able,  in  a  moment, 
to  lay  his  hand  on  just  what  he  wanted.  The  Charlottes- 
\  ille  Church  made  great  demands  on  their  pastor  in  the 
matter  of  visits,  and  perhaps  no  pastor  ever  came  nearer 
meeting  these  demands  than  did  Mr.  Turpin.  At  one 
time  he  had  a  buggy  and  a  little  black  horse,  and  this 
trio  seemed  almost  ubiquitous.  Charlottesville  is  not  a 
large  place,  and  yet  for  its  population  it  has  magnificent 
distances.  The  Sunday  school  was  prosperous  in  a  high 
degree,  and  the  congregations  from  week  to  week  were 
large,  while  upon  an  extra  occasion,  such  as  a  Children's 
Day,  the  crowds  taxed  the  capacity  of  the  spacious 
meeting-house,  and  a  more  reverent  and  enthusiastic 
crowd  it  would  have  been  hard  to  find.  While  it  has 
been  said  that  Mr.  Turpin  was  not  a  great  preacher,  let 
it  not  be  supposed  that  he  was  weak  in  the  pulpit.  He 
was  faithful  and  conscientious  in  the  preparation  of  his 
sermons.  He  was  felicitous  in  his  use  of  illustrations. 
He  did  not  have  a  voice  of  unusual  range,  but  it  was 
pleasant,  and  he  used  it  well.  His  manner,  when  he 
spoke,  was  easy  yet  dignified.  He  commanded  attention 
for  his  message.  He  had  a  forceful  English  style. 
While  in  Charlottesville  Mr.  Turpin  was  an  active  cham- 
pion of  the  temperance  cause,  and  before  moving  away 
the  second  time  he  had  the  joy  of  seeing  the  town  go 
"dry." 

During  his  first  pastorate  in  Charlottesville  his  church, 
(indeed,  it  might  rather  be  said  the  town)  enjoyed  three 
great  revivals  of  religion.  During  his  second  pastorate 
the  present  meeting-house,  an  unusually  handsome  and 
attractive  structure,  was  erected.  He  was  ever  most 
gracious  to  his  brethren  in  the  ministry,  with  a  peculiarly 


JOHN  BROADUS  TURPIN  217 

cordial  and  helpful  spirit  towards  the  young  pastor  just 
winning  his  spurs.  In  the  Albemarle  Association,  of 
which  body  his  church  was  a  member,  he  was  a  leader. 
At  the  centennial  session  of  the  Association,  held  at 
i  "la-stnut  Grove  Church,  August  19,  1891,  he  preached 
the  special  historical  sermon,  which  he  afterwards 
enlarged  and  published  in  booklet  form. 

Mr.  Turpin  was  not  of  a  robust  physical  build.  He 
was  often  in  danger  of  overtaxing  his  power.  Concern 
as  to  his  health  was  one  cause  of  his  going  to  Americus, 
Ga.  While  in  Americus  he  was  called  on  to  take  part  in 
the  services  at  the  funeral  of  Speaker  Crisp,  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  prayer  which  he  made  on  this 
occasion  so  impressed  one  of  the  Congressional  party 
that  a  copy  of  it  was  secured  for  the  official  printed 
record  of  the  occasion.  In  his  various  pastorates 
Mr.  Turpin  was  always  cordial  in  his  help  towards  the 
colored  people,  and  always  highly  esteemed  and  loved  by 
them.  He  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor,  loved  a  good  joke, 
and  with  his  hearty  laugh  more  than  rewarded  the  one 
who  had  furnished  the  fun.  He  was  himself  quite  ready 
with  a  good  story.  For  commencement  addresses  he  was 
much  in  demand,  and,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was 
engaged  for  speeches  at  two  such  functions.  During  his 
second  pastorate  in  Charlottesville  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Rosa  Bibb  Smith,  the  daughter  of  J.  Marion  and 
Nellie  Timberlake  Smith.  Miss  Smith  was  of  Albemarle 
County,  and  this  marriage  took  place  at  the  First  Baptist 
Church,  Charlottesville,  September  3,  1890.  She  sur- 
vives her  husband.  On  Wednesday,  January  20,  1915, 
she  was  married  at  Shadwell,  Albemarle  County,  Vir- 
ginia, to  Judge  William  Francis  Rhea. 

When  Mr.  Turpin  resigned  at  Charlottesville  the 
second  time  it  was  to  accept  the  pastorate  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church  of  Parkersburg,  W.  Va.  Scarcely  had  he 
been  on  this  field  a  year  when,  February  3,  1909,  he 
departed  this  life.  The  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  "Holly- 
wood," Richmond. 


JOHN  WILLIAM  JONES 
1836-1909 

A  class  poem,  called  "The  Boys,"  written  in  1859  by 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  has  these  lines  descriptive  of 
Dr.  S.  F.  Smith,  the  author  of  our  national  hymn : 

"And  there's  a  nice  youngster  of  excellent  pith. 
Fate  tried  to  conceal  him  by  naming  him  Smith; 
But  he  shouted  a  song  for  the  brave  and  the  free, 
Just  read  on  his  medal  'My  Country  of  Thee'." 

The  name  of  John  William  Jones  is  so  associated  with 
the  Civil  War  and  with  its  two  great  generals,  Lee  and 
Jackson,  that  he,  like  S.  F.  Smith,  has  overcome  the  dis- 
advantage of  having  a  name  borne  by  so  many. 

On  the  morning  of  April  17,  1861,  as  the  Louisa 
Blues,  a  volunteer  company,  were  drilling  on  the  court- 
house green  at  Louisa  Court  House,  Va.,  a  telegram 
from  the  Governor  of  the  State  ordered  the  company  to 
be  ready  to  leave  for  the  front  by  sunset.  At  that  hour 
a  great  crowd  gathered  to  see  the  young  soldiers  depart. 
A  venerable  minister  of  the  gospel  spoke  tender  words 
of  farewell  and  made  an  earnest  prayer  to  God.  Amidst 
tears  and  shouts  these  boys,  who  were  to  wear  the  gray, 
went  off.  John  William  Jones  was  a  member  of  this 
company.  He  was  the  son  of  Col.  Francis  William  and 
Ann  Pendleton  Ashby,  having  been  born  at  Louisa  Court 
House,  September  25/1836.  In  a  protracted  meeting  at 
Mechanicsville  Baptist  Church,  Louisa  County,  in 
August,  1855,  under  the  preaching  of  Rev.  George  B. 
Taylor,  Mr.  Jones  was  converted  and  baptized.  That 
fall  he  entered  the  University  of  Virginia.  This  session 
his  roommate  was  John  C.  Hiden,  and  they  had  as  their 

218 


JOHN  WILLIAM  JONES  219 

quarters  Room  No.  1,  Mrs.  Daniel's  boarding  house. 
This  room,  which  was  close  to  the  dining-room,  became 
the  rendezvous,  after  supper,  for  a  half-hour  of  fun  and 
song  before  hard  work  began,  such  men  as  these  drop- 
ping in :  H.  H.  and  Jerry  Harris,  Tom  Hume,  John  L. 
Johnson,  Eddie  Bowie,  John  C.  James,  Cullingworth, 
Estes,  and  Boston — not  an  idler  among  them,  all  fine 
students.  During  his  student  days  Mr.  Jones  was  an 
earnest  Christian.  He  was  active  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
which  was  organized  in  1858,  the  first  college  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
in  the  world.  Its  constitution  was  adopted  October  12, 
and  when  the  officers  were  elected  the  place  of  treasurer 
was  given  to  Mr.  Jones.  This  Association  organized  a 
prayer-meeting  in  every  boarding  house  and  in  every  sec- 
tion of  the  University,  established  Bible  classes,  kept  up 
a  well-attended  prayer-meeting  Sunday  afternoon,  sent 
out  teachers  and  workers  to  Sunday  schools  and  religious 
services  in  destitute  sections  within  eight  or  ten  miles  of 
the  University,  and,  under  the  superintendence  of  Dr. 
John  B.  Minor,  maintained  a  negro  Sunday  school. 
In  this  work  Mr.  Jones  took  deep  interest.  From  Sunday 
to  Sunday,  although  he  did  not  love  to  walk,  he  tramped 
five  miles  to  teach  in  a  Sunday  school  among  the 
mountains.  During  a  protracted  meeting  held  in  the 
University,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  there 
were  in  his  dormitory  eight  students ;  the  four  who  were 
professors  of  religion  made  special  effort  and  prayer  for 
the  other  four,  and  before  the  meeting  closed  all  eight 
were  followers  of  Jesus.  From  the  University  he  went  to 
Greenville,  S.  C.,  to  attend  the  first  session  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary.  His  name 
stands  as  the  first  matriculate  of  the  Seminary,  he  being 
one  of  the  ten  that  Virginia  sent  that  year,  the  total 
enrollment  being  twenty-six.  On  June  10,  1860,  at  the 
Baptist  Church,  Charlottesville,  four  young  men,  namely, 


220         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Crawford  H.  Toy,  John  L.  Johnson,  James  B.  Taylor, 
Jr.,  and  John  William  Jones,  were  ordained  to  the  gospel 
ministry.  Less  than  a  month  later,  on  July  3,  Mr.  Jones 
was  accepted  by  the  Foreign  Mission  Board,  in  Rich- 
mond, for  work  in  Canton,  China.  This  year  was  a 
most  eventful  one  for  him.  On  December  20,  at  "Oak- 
ley," Nelson  County,  a  country  residence  commanding  a 
fine  view,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Judith  Page  Helm,  who 
was  to  prove  in  every  way  a  noble  helpmeet.  (The  cere- 
mony was  performed  by  Dr.  Wm.  D.  Thomas.)  In 
1888,  at  a  District  Association,  a  lady  came  up  to 
Dr.  Jones  and  said:  uDo  you  not  know  me?  I  was  a 
bridesmaid  at  your  marriage."  He  was  candid  enough 
to  admit  that  he  did  not  recognize  her,  whereupon  a 
friend  suggested  that  his  attention  had  been  so  centered 
on  the  bride  that  he  did  not  see  any  one  else.  This  same 
winter  he  became  pastor  of  the  Little  River  Baptist 
Church,  Louisa  County,  with  a  once-a-month  appoint- 
ment. 

In  the  spring  of  1861  the  "blast  of  war"  sounded  in 
the  ears  of  the  Southern  people,  and,  as  already  men- 
tioned, Mr.  Jones  went  out  with  a  company  from  his  own 
county.  It  was  not  long  before  he  became  a  chaplain  in 
the  army,  but  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  went  out  as 
a  private.  It  was  during  the  first  year  of  the  mighty 
struggle,  when  the  first  flush  of  victory  had  lowered  the 
moral  tone  in  the  Southern  Army,  that  a  brigadier- 
general  fell  off  his  horse  on  review  and  lay  drunk  in  his 
quarters  for  weeks,  with  sentinels  to  guard  him.  One  of 
these  sentinels  was  our  young  soldier,  who,  speaking  of 
this  episode,  says :  "For  many  a  weary  hour  I  paced  the 
sentinel's  beat  in  front  of  those  headquarters,  my  only 
orders  being  not  to  disturb  the  general."  Mr.  Jones  tells 
of  another  disgraceful  scene.  Gambling  became  common 
and  open.  Col.  A.  P.  Hill  ordered  the  officer  of  the 


JOHN  WILLIAM  JONES  221 

guard  to  take  a  file  of  men  and  capture  the  faro-bank 
that  was  doing  a  big  business.  Mr.  Jones,  one  of  the 
detail,  was  stationed  at  the  door,  with  orders  to  arrest  all 
who  attempted  to  escape.  The  first  who  tried  to  pass 
out  was  a  prominent  politician,  who  was  fond  of  gaming, 
and  who  was  on  a  visit  to  his  son.  He  protested  against 
being  detained,  saying  that  he  was  a  citizen  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Legislature,  but  the  young  soldier's  bayonet 
prevented  his  escape.  These  two  events  are  the  more 
striking  in  this  life  story,  as  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
was  so  associated  with  the  religious  life  of  the  Army  of 
Northern  Virginia.  First  as  chaplain,  and  then  as  army 
evangelist,  he  sought  in  every  way  the  physical  and 
spiritual  welfare  of  the  soldiers.  For  the  full  story  <>f 
the  religious  life  of  the  army,  and  the  part  that  Mr.  Jones 
bore  in  it,  the  reader  must  turn  to  "Christ  in  the  Cam])." 
a  book  which,  a  few  years  ago,  Dr.  B.  H.  Carroll.  <»f 
Texas,  described  as  "priceless,"  and  as  "a  great  Virginia 
book"  that  should  "live  forever."  This  volume,  prepared 
by  Dr.  Jones  after  the  War,  was  largely  based  on  his  own 
experiences  and  on  the  letters  that  he  wrote  from  camp  to 
the  Religious  Herald,  Christian  Index,  and  other  papers. 
In  the  first  personal  interviews  that  Mr.  Jones  had  with 
Robert  E.  Lee  and  "Stonewall"  Jackson  his  business  was 
the  religious  interests  of  the  soldiers  and  officers.  In 
February,  1864,  when  the  army  was  on  the  Rapidan, 
Rev.  B.  T.  Lacy  and  he  went  to  General  Lee,  a  committee 
f n  -in  the  Chaplains'  Association,  in  reference  to  a  better 
observance  of  the  Sabbath.  They  were  received  with 
"marked  courtesy  and  respect,"  the  great  man's  eye 
brightening  and  his  whole  face  glowing  with  pleasure  as 
he  heard  details  in  regard  to  the  great  revival  that  was 
then  sweeping  through  his  army,  and,  the  day  after,  he 
issued  a  "general  order"  calling  for  a  reduction,  to  the 
minimum,  of  military  work  on  Sunday,  and  expressing 


222         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

satisfaction  that  there  were  houses  of  worship  and 
religious  services  in  the  camp.  Mr.  Jones'  first  interview 
with  "Stonewall"  Jackson  was  when,  on  July  4,  1861, 
the  army  being  drawn  up  in  line  of  battle  at  Darkesville 
to  meet  General  Patterson,  he  sought  permission  for  a 
colporteur,  Rev.  C.  F.  Fry,  to  distribute  Bibles  and  tracts 
in  the  lines.  His  request  was  at  once  granted  and  the 
colporteur  introduced.  Along  with  many  other  chaplains, 
Mr.  Jones  was  active  "in  season  and  out  of  season," 
preaching,  distributing  Bibles  and  other  good  literature, 
working  in  revivals,  and  seeking,  by  letters  to  the  public 
press,  to  secure  more  chaplains  for  the  work.  As  a  rule 
there  was  preaching  every  day,  and,  at  least  once, 
Mr.  Jones  preached  four  times  in  one  day.  On  Sunday, 
September  6,  1863,  he  preached  at  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning  to  his  own  brigade,  at  eleven  o'clock  he  attended 
an  ordination  service  at  the  Orange  Court  House  Baptist 
Church,  in  the  afternoon  he  witnessed,  along  with  a 
crowd  of  five  thousand  men,  the  baptism,  in  a  creek  near 
the  railroad,  of  eighty -two  soldiers,  and  at  dusk  he 
preached,  by  the  light  of  fire  stands,  to  five  thousand  men 
seated  on  logs.  Once,  when  he  reached  his  appointment 
for  preaching,  it  was  raining,  and  he  suggested  that  per- 
haps the  service  could  not  be  held,  but  the  men  wanted 
to  stay,  and  so  the  sermon  was  preached  in  the  rain.  On 
another  occasion  the  sermon  had  not  been  reached  when 
a  shell  fell  in  the  midst  of  the  congregation ;  at  the  sug- 
gestion of  the  officer  in  charge,  the  congregation  moved 
to  a  more  protected  place  and  the  sermon  was  delivered. 
One  of  the  most  beautiful  features  of  the  religious  work 
in  the  army  was  the  fraternal  spirit  of  the  ministers  of 
the  various  denominations.  No  one  was  more  fully 
possessed  with  this  spirit  than  Mr.  Jones,  yet  he  was 
withal  a  most  decided  Baptist.  Dr.  T.  D.  Witherspoon, 
a  distinguished  Presbyterian  minister,  told,  as  a  joke  on 


JOHN  WILLIAM  JONES  223 

Jones,  a  story  that  was  possibly  more  of  a  joke  on  him- 
self. It  was  customary  in  the  army  that  when  a  soldier, 
upon  a  profession  of  faith,  desired  to  unite  with  some 
other  denomination  than  that  of  the  minister  conducting 
the  service,  he  was  directed  to  a  minister  of  the  denomi- 
nation of  his  choice.  Upon  the  invitation  of  Dr.  Wither- 
spoon,  Dr.  Jones  had  gone  over  to  his  brigade,  cut  the  ice 
on  a  mill-pond,  and  baptized  a  number  of  men.  In  the 
service  he  had  read,  without  comment,  some  of  the 
Scripture  passages  bearing  on  baptism.  The  next  day 
one  of  the  men  went  to  Chaplain  Witherspoon  and  said : 
"I  do  not  think  you  ought  to  invite  Brother  Jones  to  come 
over  here  any  more."  When  asked  why  he  felt  this  way, 
the  man  replied  that  he  did  not  think  that  Brother  Jones 
had  a  right  to  read  to  the  crowd  "all  of  them  Baptist 
Scriptures."  In  one  of  his  reports  Mr.  Jones  stated  that 
during  the  year  he  had  baptized  222  candidates,  having 
preached  161  sermons.  At  another  time  his  record 
showed  that  in  one  month  he  baptized  67  men.  Once 
at  Peyton's  Ford,  on  the  Rapidan  River,  when  the 
stream,  owing  to  recent  rains,  was  very  swift,  he  baptized 
twelve  young  men;  an  old  citizen  told  him  that  fifty 
years  before,  at  the  same  place,  Mrs.  General  Madison, 
sister-in-law  to  the  President,  had  been  baptized,  the 
President  and  a  great  crowd  being  present.  On  two 
occasions  Mr.  Jones  baptized  in  the  Rapidan  in  full  view 
of  the  Union  pickets,  but  there  was  no  motion  on  their 
part  to  interrupt  the  ordinance.  Once,  in  1864,  on  a 
moonlight  night,  after  a  sermon  in  Wright's  Georgia 
Brigade,  Mr.  Jones  received  nine  for  baptism,  but 
scarcely  had  he  announced  that  the  ordinance  would  take 
place  the  next  morning  at  nine  o'clock  when  the  "long 
roll"  sounded,  and  in  a  few  moments  the  men  were  on 
the  march  towards  what  proved  to  be  a  series  of  bloody 
battles.  Before  there  was  another  chance  to  baptize  these 


224         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

candidates  three  were  dead  and  three  in  prison.  While 
the  conflict  was  raging  around  Petersburg,  one  day 
Mr.  Jones,  assisted  by  John  R.  Bagby,  was  distributing 
tracts  in  the  trenches,  at  a  time  when  the  shells  were 
bursting  close  at  hand  and  the  Minie  balls  whistled 
through  the  air.  One  man,  who  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
have  a  frying-pan  and  something  to  fry,  was  calmly  pre- 
paring his  meal,  when  a  Minie  struck  in  the  center  of 
the  fire  and  threw  the  ashes  in  every  direction.  The 
man's  comment  was :  "Plague  take  them  fellows.  I 
'spect  they'll  spile  my  grease  before  they  stop  their 
foolishness."  A  little  later  the  major  suggested  that  the 
party  go  into  the  noonday  prayer-meeting  that  was  being 
held  in  the  "boom  proof";  the  service  that  followed  was 
a  precious  and  tender  one.  One  day  Mr.  Jones  was 
riding  along  the  lines  at  Petersburg  with  Carter,  his  little 
boy,  on  the  pummel  of  the  saddle.  The  little  fellow 
amused  himself  giving  the  "military  salute"  to  the  "men 
in  gray"  as  he  passed  along.  Presently  one  of  them 
called  out:  "How  do  you  do,  General?"  The  child 
proudly  replied :  "I  am  no  General,  Sir,  I  am  a  Baptist 
preacher."  Some  years  later,  when  General  Lee  was 
President  of  Washington  and  Lee  University  and 
Mr.  Jones  pastor  of  the  Lexington  Baptist  Church,  the 
same  boy  was  being  caressed  and  petted  by  General  Lee. 
General  Lee  said:  "Ah,  Carter,  I.  hope  to  live  long- 
enough  to  give  you  a  high  diploma."  The  boy  replied : 
"General,  I  am  not  going  to  your  college ;  I  am  going  to 
graduate  at  Richmond  College  and  then  I  am  going  to 
be  a  Master  of  Arts  of  the  University  of  Virginia,  a  full 
graduate  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary, 
and  a  Baptist  preacher"  "Well,  my  boy,"  answered 
General  Lee,  "you  have  marked  off  a  noble  course  for 
yourself,  and  I  hope  you  may  be  able  to  carry  it  out  to 
the  letter."  Before  .the  War  was  over,  in  the  many 


JOHN  WILLIAM  JONES  225 

religious  meetings  that  had  been  held,  it  is  estimated  that 
no  less  than  15,000  men  had  made  profession  of  their 
faith  in  Christ,  and  of  this  number  Mr.  Jones  had  bap- 
tized 410.  In  after  years  Mr.  Jones  had  abundant  evi- 
dence that  very  many,  perhaps  the  larger  proportion,  of 
the  men  who  made  profession  of  religion  during  the  War 
became  faithful  church  members  when  they  returned 
home. 

In  1865  Mr.  Jones  became  pastor  of  the  Goshen  Bridge 
and  Lexington  Churches,  in  Rockbridge  County,  Vir- 
ginia. After  a  year  he  gave  his  whole  service  to  the 
work  at  Lexington.  He  reached  the  town  about  the  same 
time  that  General  Lee  assumed  the  presidency  of  Wash- 
ington College  (now  Washington  and  Lee  University). 
It  so  happened  that  there  was  no  other  pastor  in  the  town 
who  could  give  himself  to  active  association  with  the 
students  at  the  college  and  the  cadets  at  the  Virginia 
Military  Institute  save  Mr.  Jones,  who  was  thus  brought 
into  close  touch  with  General  Lee.  Mr.  Jones  says  of 
this  work:  "I  held  well-attended  prayer-meetings  at  the 
Institute  every  night,  attended,  every  morning,  the  prayers 
at  the  college,  and  the  frequent  Y.  M.  C.  A.  meetings  of 
the  students,  and  did  a  good  deal  of  visiting  in  the  rooms 
of  the  college  students  and  the  barracks  of  the  Institute. 
The  happiest  results  followed  these  labors;  there  were 
a  number  of  conversions  among  the  students,  and  soon 
we  had  a  general  and  all-pervasive  revival  among  the 
cadets  of  the  Institute,  in  which  110  of  them  professed 
conversion.  In  the  college  and  the  Institute  both  there 
were  150  professions  of  conversion,  and  of  these,  35 
became  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  others  were  useful 
church  members.  ...  A  distinguished  Episcopal 
bishop,  whom  I  met  some  years  ago,  after  talking  about 
the  revival  and  his  conversion  in  it,  said  to  me :  'The  first 
theological  instruction  I  ever  received  was  in  the  Ne\v 


15 


226         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Testament  Greek  class  you  used  to  teach  at  the  Institute.' 
General  Lee,  meeting  me  on  the  lawn  one  day,  inquired 
after  the  revival  at  the  Institute  and  said  with  a  good 
deal  of  feeling:  'That  is  the  best  news  I  have  heard 
since  I  have  been  in  Lexington.  Oh,  that  we  might  have 
such  a  revival  in  our  college  and  in  all  the  colleges  of 
the  country' !"  His  relationship  to  General  Lee  at  this 
period,  as  well  as  his  acquaintance  with  him  during  the 
War,  led  to  his  writing  his  "Personal  Reminiscences, 
Anecdotes,  and  Letters  of  R.  E.  Lee,"  a  book  that  had  a 
sale  of  over  20,000  copies. 

In  1871  he  left  Lexington  to  become  agent  for  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary.  In  September, 
1873,  he  became  General  Superintendent  of  the  Sunday- 
School  and  Bible  Board  of  the  Baptist  General  Associa- 
tion of  Virginia.  Until  he  resigned  this  work,  on 
June  1,  1874,  he  regarded  himself  as  a  Sunday-school 
missionary,  visiting  as  many  Sunday  schools  and 
churches  as  possible,  attending  many  District  Associa- 
tions and  Sunday- School  Conventions,  coming  into  per- 
sonal contact  with  Sunday-school  workers,  and  endeavor- 
ing, by  pen  and  tongue,  to  rally  the  workers  and  to  disci- 
pline the  army  for  better  work.  In  1874  he  received  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Washington  and  Lee 
University,  and  the  following  year,  living  in  Richmond, 
became  pastor  of  the  Ashland  Church,  and  at  the  same 
time  being  Secretary  of  the  Southern  Historical  Society. 
The  main  work  of  this  last  office  was  that  of  editing  the 
Southern  Historical  Society  Papers.  Under  Dr.  Jones' 
direction  fourteen  volumes  of  this  publication  appeared. 
During  the  active  years  that  remained  of  his  life,  Dr. 
Jones  was,  first,  for  some  years  the  Assistant  Secretary 
of  the  Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
Convention,  Atlanta,  Ga.,  then  for  two  years  Chaplain 
to  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  finally  Chaplain  of  the 


JOHN  WILLIAM  JONES  227 

Miller  Manual  School,  Albemarle  County.  In  connection 
with  these  positions  he  was  busy  with  his  pen,  before  his 
death  giving  to  the  world,  besides  the  books  already  men- 
tioned, the  "Jefferson  Davis  Memorial  Volume,"  the 
"Army  of  Northern  Virginia  Memorial  Volume,"  a 
"School  History  of  the  United  States,"  the  "Life  and 
Letters  of  R.  E.  Lee,"  and  "The  Soldier  and  Man."  For 
his  "School  History"  he  had  been  reading  and  gathering 
material  for  twenty  years.  These  books  by  no  means 
represent  all  of  his  pen  work.  Probably  there  was  never 
a  year  when  he  was  not  correspondent  or  reporter  for 
one  or  more  papers,  either  regularly  or  for  special  occa- 
sions or  conventions.  This  newspaper  work  seems  to 
have  begun  when  a  brother  preacher  turned  over  to  him 
an  engagement  with  the  Richmond  Dispatch.  For  this 
paper  Dr.  Jones  wrote  many  years  over  the  signature  of 
"Viator."  Dr.  Jones  had  a  large  private  and  semi-public 
correspondence,  and  much  of  this  work  he  did  without 
the  aid  or  before  the  day  of  stenographers.  His  hand- 
writing was  bold,  large,  and  almost  as  plain  as  print,  and 
his  "Yours  to  count  on,"  with  which  he  closed  many  a 
letter,  gave  pleasure,  and  almost  passed  into  a  proverb 
among  his  friends,  seeming  to  be  an  index  of  the  charac- 
ter of  the  man.  He  was  warm-hearted  and  enthusiastic 
in  his  make-up,  and  loyal,  in  a  very  noble  sense  and  to  a 
high  degree,  to  cause  or  principle  or  person  when  once 
he  had  committed  himself.  His  devotion  to  the  South, 
her  generals  and  men  and  destiny,  his  strong  adherence 
to  Baptist  doctrines  and  agencies  for  service,  his  willing- 
ness to  help  a  friend  at  any  cost,  illustrate  the  remark  as 
to  the  loyalty  of  his  character.  Not  only  with  his  pen 
and  as  a  preacher  did  Dr.  Jones  serve  his  day  and  coming 
generations.  He  had  a  number  of  lectures  touching  the 
history  of  War,  one  on  Lee,  another  on  "Stonewall" 
Jackson,  and  yet  another  called  the  "Boys  in  Gray,"  that 


228         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

he  delivered  far  and  wide,  not  only  in  the  South,  but  also 
in  the  North.  Boston  gave  him  an  overflowing  audience 
to  hear  one  of  these  lectures,  and  the  respect  and  courtesy 
the  audience  showed  him  on  this  occasion  greatly 
delighted  him.  Towards  the  close  of  his  life  he  was 
elected  Chaplain-General  of  the  United  Confederate 
Veterans  and  to  the  office  of  Secretary  and  Superintend- 
ent of  the  Confederate  Memorial  Association.  For  years 
not  a  few  before  the  end  came,  it  was  fine,  at  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  and  sometimes  at  other 
annual  Baptist  gatherings,  to  see  "The  Jones  Boys,"  as 
Dr.  Jones  and  his  four  preacher  boys — Carter  Helm, 
Pendleton,  Ashby,  and  Howard — came  to  be  called,  in 
admiration  and  affection,  by  the  brotherhood.  The 
father,  in  a  wonderful  way,  preserved  his  youthful  spirit, 
and  the  fellowship  and  camaraderie  among  the  five  was 
inspiring  to  behold.  Each  of  these  sons  has  had  a  useful 
career,  and  as  they  still  stand,  in  the  vigor  of  service  and 
power,  they  are  a  noble  illustration  of  the  sterling  worth, 
real  piety,  and  strong  personality  of  their  parents.  The 
fifth  son,  Frank,  is  a  lawyer. 

Dr.  Jones  died,  in  Columbus,  Ga.,  March  17,  1909,  at 
the  home  of  his  son,  Rev.  M.  Ashby  Jones,  and  the  body 
was  taken  to  Richmond,  Va.,  where  he  had  lived  so  long 
and  the  capital  of  the  Confederacy  that  he  loved  so  well. 
The  service  in  Richmond  was  conducted  by  these  minis- 
ters :  Ryland  Knight,  W.  R.  L.  Smith,  W.  H.  Whitsitt, 
E.  L.  Grace,  and  Wm.  E.  Hatcher.  The  body  was  laid 
to  rest  in  Hollywood.  Memorial  services  were  held  in 
Ashland,  where  he  had  been  pastor,  and  in  May,  at  the 
session  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  in  Louisville, 
Ky.,  an  address  was  delivered  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Whitsitt 
upon  the  character  and  work  of  Dr.  Jones. 


JAMES  HENRY  BARNES 
1833-1909 

Among  those  who  bore  part  in  the  organization  of  the 
Liberty  Baptist  Church,  New  Kent  County,  Virginia, 
were  Mr.  William  H.  Barnes  and  his  wife,  who  was, 
before  her  marriage,  Miss  Lucy  Saunders.  They  were 
both  born  in  New  Kent,  but  soon  after  their  marriage 
they  moved  to  James  City  County,  and  here,  on  Septem- 
ber 23,  1833,  their  son,  James  H.,  was  born,  and  here  he 
grew  to  manhood.  Hickory  Neck  Academy,  located  in 
James  City  County,  and  one  of  the  "best  classical  schools 
that  the  South  wa's  noted  for  before  the  Civil  War," 
helped  the  young  man  towards  an  education,  preparing 
him  for  William  and  Mary  College,  at  which  famous 
institution  he  was  a  student  the  sessions  of  1854-55  and 
1855-56.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  enlisted, 
^erving  first  under  General  Joseph  E.  Johnston  and  then, 
as  a  courier  and  clerk,  under  General  R.  E.  Lee.  He  con- 
tinued in  the  service  until  near  the  end  of  the  War,  when 
he  was  taken  prisoner.  After  the  close  of  the  War, 
returning  to  his  home,  he  sought,  first  as  a  school-teacher, 
to  do  all  in  his  power,  at  this  trying  time,  for  the  good 
of  his  country.  From  the  desk  of  the  pedagogue  he 
passed  to  the  pulpit,  being  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry 
at  Liberty  Church  and  becoming  pastor  of  this  flock.  To 
this  people  he  ministered  longer  than  to  any  other,  and 
there  are  many  living  in  that  community  who  give  testi- 
mony to  the  far-reaching  blessings  of  his  influence.  In 
the  course  of  his  ministry  the  other  country  churches  of 
which  he  was  pastor  were  Samaria,  James  City,  Har- 
mony Grove,  Macedonia,  Spring  Hill,  and  Eastville, 

229 


230         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

located  in  the  counties  of  Northampton,  Middlesex, 
Gloucester,  and  Mathews.  The  towns  of  Williamsburg, 
Richmond  (Fulton  Church),  and  Baltimore  were  also  his 
fields  of  labor  before  his  work  ended.  In  this  last-named 
city  he  founded  the  Hampden  Baptist  Church.  His 
preaching  was  characterized  by  "simplicity,  earnestness, 
directness,  and  spirituality,"  and  was  eloquent  withal. 
For  some  years  before  his  death  he  was  afflicted  with 
total  blindness,  which  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  give 
up  his  regular  pastoral  work,  but  he  still  continued  to 
preach,  and  many  thought  his  messages  after  the  days 
of  his  great  affliction  were  with  greater  power  and  ten- 
derness than  ever  before.  "Through  a  long  life  he  loved 
God  and  loved  his  fellow-men,  and,  though  independent 
of  opinion  and  fearless  in  upholding  the  right,  he  was 
ever  patient,  tender,  and  generous,  and  was  loved, 
honored,  and  esteemed  by  all  who  knew  him."  He  died 
at  the  residence  of  his  brother-in-law,  Mr.  Ben  Joe 
Vaughan,  in  Ware  Neck,  April  7,  1909.  The  funeral 
and  burial  took  place  at  Poroporone  Church,  King  and 
Queen  County.  The  services,  which  were  attended  by  a 
large  crowd  (some  of  the  people  from  the  Harmony 
Grove  Church  coming  across  the  country  over  winter 
roads),  were  conducted  by  Rev.  W.  W.  Sisk,  assisted  by 
Rev.  R.  A.  Folkes,  Rev.  H.  J.  Goodwin,  and  Rev.  W.  E. 
Wiatt.  The  sermon,  from  the  text  "I  have  fought  a 
good  fight,"  was  preached  by  Mr.  Sisk.  Mr.  Barnes  was 
married  twice.  His  first  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married, 
at  Liberty  Church,  January  1,  1885,  was  Miss  Mary 
Florence  Binns.  Of  this  union  there  were  born  two 
daughters,  Macon  E.  and  Mary  F.  Barnes.  His  second 
wife,  who  survives  him,  and  to  whom  he  was  married, 
at  Poroporone  Church,  November  13,  1894,  was  Miss 
Florence  Celeste  Mann. 


JOHN  MILTON  WILLIS 

1849-1909 

It  would  be  interesting  to  have  the  statistics  as  to  men 
who  had  first  been  lawyers  or  physicians  and  then  became 
ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  of  those  who  had  given  up 
the  ministry  for  one  of  these  professions.  After  a  num- 
ber of  years  as  a  successful  attorney-at-law,  John  Milton 
Willis  entered  the  ministry  and  gave  the  remainder  of 
his  life  to  this  calling.  He  was  born  in  Orange  County, 
at  "Spring  Hill,"  the  home  of  his  parents,  on  August  12, 
1849.  His  father  was  James  Willis  and  his  mother 
Elizabeth  Gordon,  a  daughter  of  Rev.  John  Churchill 
Gordon ;  of  this  minister  a  sketch  will  be  found  in  "Lives 
of  Virginia  Baptist  Ministers,"  Second  Series.  The  sub- 
ject of  the  present  sketch  spent  his  early  days  on  his 
father's  farm,  upon  the  Rapidan  River,  and  attended  the 
"old-field"  school  located  on  his  father's  lands.  Locust 
Dale  Academy,  under  the  management  of  Mr.  Andrew  J. 
Gordon,  next  ministered  to  his  educational  life,  and  then 
he  became  a  student  of  law  at  Richmond  College.  Upon 
leaving  Richmond  College,  in  1871,  he  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  law  for  one  year  in  Charlottesville,  Va.,  and 
then  moved  to  Missouri.  He  settled  in  Saline  County, 
making  first  Miami  and  then  Marshall,  the  county-seat, 
his  home.  Here,  by  his  ability  and  by  his  "remarkably 
pure  and  upright  life,"  he  built  up  a  large  practice.  On 
May  3,  1877,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Young  Hoi- 
man,  the  oldest  daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  Russell  Holman,. 
who  was  the  founder  of  the  Colosseum  Place  Baptist 
Church,  New  Orleans,  and  for  many  years  the  secretary 
of  the  Domestic  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist 

231 


232         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Convention.  In  October,  1884,  Mr.  Willis  moved  to 
Florida*  being  led  to  this  step  because  his  health  had 
been  seriously  undermined  by  inflammatory  rheumatism. 
Here  he  worked  at  his  profession,  and  raised  oranges, 
until  the  fall  of  1895,  when,  responding  to  what  he 
believed  to  be  a  call  from  God,  he  offered  himself  as  a 
candidate  for  the  gospel  ministry,  and  was  ordained,  in 
January,  1896,  at  Green  Cove  Springs,  Fla.  Although 
he  set  out  on  the  career  of  a  preacher  without  regular 
theological  training,  he  had  had  no  mean  preparation  in 
this  direction,  since  he  had  sat  a.t  the  feet  of  Dr.  Holman 
and  Dr.  Henry  Talbird,  both  of  them  ministers  of  ability 
and  learning.  "In  long  talks  and  discussions  with  them 
he  drank  deep  of  theological  truths,  and  from  their 
libraries  he  garnered  a  store  of  knowledge."  After  two 
years,  in  which  period  he  was  pastor  at  Palatka,  also 
supplying  country  churches,  he  returned  to  Virginia  and 
became,  in  the  summer  of  1898,  pastor  of  the  Mount 
Madison  Baptist  Church,  just  across  the  river  from 
Lynchburg,  and  in  Amherst  County.  After  five  years  of 
faithful  service  in  this  field  he  became  State  evangelist, 
under  the  State  Mission  Board,  and  gave  himself  unre- 
servedly to  the  hardships  incident  to  a  ministry  in  the 
waste  places.  This  work  proved  too  strenuous  for  him, 
his  health  broke  down,  and,  in  1906,  he  resigned.  In 
November,  1907,  he  began  to  preach  again,  taking  charge 
of  the  Bridgewater  and  Mt.  Crawford  Churches,  Rock- 
ingham  County,  Augusta  Association.  While  on  this 
field,  on  Sunday  morning,  May  22,  1909,  after  preaching 
from  Galatians  5:1,  a  few  moments  after  the  close  of 
the  sermon  he  dropped  dead  on  the  street.  He  was 
buried  in  Buena  Vista,  Va.,  where  he  had  lived  for 
several  years.  As  a  lawyer  he  had  never  betrayed  the 
confidence  reposed  in  him  by  fellow-citizens  who  called 
him  to  represent  them  in  positions  of  importance,  and  as 


JOHN  MILTON  WILLIS  233 

a  minister  "he  was  noted  for  a  singularly  consistent 
Christian  life,  a  keen  insight  into  spiritual  things,  and  a 
determination  to  know  nothing  but  Christ  and  Him  cruci- 
fied." He  is  survived  by  his  wife  and  three  children, 
namely:  Hon.  Russell  Holman  Willis,  Roanoke;  Mrs. 
L.  M.  Walker,  Danville,  and  Miss  Gladys  Churchill 
\Villis. 


TIMOTHY  FUNK 
1824-1909 

On  Friday,  January  29,  1907,  a  company  of  some  five 
hundred  people  gathered  at  the  Baptist  Church,  Singer's 
Glen,  Rockingham  County,  Virginia,  for  an  all-day 
service.  Although  Rev.  G.  C.  Bundick  and  Rev.  J.  H. 
Brunk,  and  perhaps  other  preachers,  were  present,  there 
were  no  sermons,  for  the  business  of  the  day  was  singing. 
After  an  opening  prayer  and  a  brief  address  the  stream 
of  song  began  to  flow,  nor  was  its  flow  broken,  save  for 
an  hour  given  to  an  abundant  dinner,  until  the  evening 
shades  fell.  During  the  larger  part  of  the  day  the  book 
used  was  the  old  and  historic  "Harmonia  Sacra"  that  had 
its  birth  at  Singer's  Glen.  Among  the  tunes  selected 
were  these:  "Greenfield,"  "Wesley,"  "Lingham," 
"Heavenly  Vision,"  "Fatherland,"  "New  Salem,"  "Eden 
of  Love,"  "Thanksgiving,"  and  "Glorious  War."  The 
most  honored  person  in  this  gathering  was  the  venerable 
Rev.  Timothy  Funk,  in  celebration  of  whose  eighty -third 
birthday  the  meeting  was  held.  The  seat  of  honor  was 
his,  and  once  during  the  day  he  was  the  leader  of  the 
music,  many  of  those  who  sang  being  his  former  pupils. 
Not  only  Baptists,  but  also  Mennonites,  United  Brethren, 
Presbyterians,  Methodists,  and  Lutherans  were  in  the 
congregation.  This  function  was  a  most  appropriate 
one,  since  Mr.  Funk,  for  more  than  half  a  century,  was 
a  teacher  of  music  throughout  the  State.  In  many,  many 
hamlets  and  rural  neighborhoods,  not  only  in  the  Valley, 
but  in  Piedmont  and  Eastern  Virginia,  his  name  was 
known.  He  "lisped  in  numbers,  for  the  numbers  carne/' 
his  father  being  Joseph  Funk,  well  called,  by  Dr.  John 
W.  Wayland,  "The  Father  of  Song  in  Northern  Vir- 

234 


TIMOTHY  FUNK 

ginia."  In  the  little  village  of  Singer's  Glen,  whose  very 
atmosphere  still  seems  to  breathe  of  music,  there  is  seen 
the  small  building  where  the  old  printing-press  stood. 
Joseph  Funk  gave  to  the  sweet,  smiling  valley  its  present 
name,  and  to  the  world  the  "Harmonia  Sacra,"  which 
had  a  sale  of  80,000  copies.  He  translated  from  German 
manuscripts  'The  Confession  of  Faith  of  the  Mennon- 
ites" ;  this  work,  with  a  preface  giving  the  history  of 
this  denomination  written  by  him,  he  published  in  1837. 
He  and  his  sons,  doing  business  under  the  style  of  Joseph 
Funk's  Sons,  introduced  what  was  known  as  the  "patent" 
or  "shaped-note"  system,  which  was  patented,  and  which 
came  to  be  known  among  music  publishers  as  "Funk's 
system."  For  many  years  the  types  were  manufactured 
and  sold  by  MacKellar,  Smith  &  Jordan,  of  Philadelphia. 
Timothy  Funk,  the  second  son  of  Joseph  Funk,  and 
one  of  fourteen  children,  was  born  January  26,  1824. 
While  it  seems  that  he  did  not  enjoy,  as  his  brother,  the 
advantages  of  a  college  course,  nevertheless  he  was  not 
an  uneducated  man.  The  training  that  he  received  from 
his  parents  was  by  no  means  to  be  despised.  The  work 
that  he  did  for  over  half  a  century  as  a  teacher  of  singing 
has  been  mentioned,  but  an  interesting  detail  may  well  be 
added.  It  was  his  custom  to  close  all  of  his  singing 
schools  with  "There  Is  a  Happy  Land."  So  it  was  most 
fitting  that  this  hymn  was  sung  at  his  funeral.  His 
work  as  a  preacher  was  long,  faithful,  and  effective.  He 
was  pastor  of  the  Turleytown  Church  for  many  years, 
and  a  noble  exponent  of  Baptist  doctrines  in  all  the  lower 
end  of  Rockingham  County,  and  doubtless  in  even  a 
wider  territory.  His  wife,  who  was  Miss  Susan  Rheu- 
bush,  preceded  him  by  many  years  to  the  unseen  world, 
having  died  May  26,  1895.  His  end  came,  after  quite  a 
season  marked  by  the  infirmities  of  age,  June  11,  1909. 
His  funeral  and  burial  took  place  at  Singer's  Glen. 


236         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Singer's  Glen,  surrounded  with  its  apple  orchards  and 
fertile  meadows,  the  mountains  in  the  distance  and  the 
hurrying  trains  far  away,  is  rich  in  suggestions  of  peace 
and  comfort.  One  family,  with  wide  ramifications,  has 
made  the  place  famous,  and  here  the  descendants  of  the 
first  settler,  who  was  a  grandson  of  Bishop  Funk,  who 
came  to  this  country  in  1719,  dwell  contentedly  together. 
Another  branch  of  the  family  lives  in  Illinois,  where 
some  years  ago  they  owned,  in  one  body,  no  less  than 
25,000  acres  of  the  best  land  in  the  State. 


W.  R.  WEBB 

1844-1909 

Thomas  L.  Webb  and  Sarah  Chambliss  Webb,  his 
wife,  of  good  Virginia  stock,  lived  on  their  farm  in  Din- 
widdie  County,  Virginia.  There,  on  August  14,  1844, 
their  son,  W.  R.  Webb,  first  saw  the  light.  The  boy 
grew  up  with  little  opportunity  for  an  education,  since 
his  father  kept  him  close  at  work  on  the  farm,  believing 
in  the  plow  rather  than  books  as  the  best  preparation  for 
life.  So  it  came  to  pass  that  not  until  he  was  a  man  and 
married  did  he  have  the  chance  for  an  education  that  he 
craved.  After  the  death,  in  1871,  of  his  first  wife,  who 
was,  before  her  marriage.  Miss  Sarah  E.  Smith,  of  Din- 
widdie  County,  he  felt  called  to  preach  the  gospel,  and 
attended,  for  several  sessions  ( 1872-74),  Richmond  Col- 
lege. During  this  period  Rev.  Vernon  FAnson  "coached" 
this  student,  who  was  no  longer  a  youth,  and  he  testifies 
that  it  was  a  "privilege  to  aid  one  who  was  so  eager  to 
learn,  so  willing  to  be  taught,  and  so  faithful  and  devoted 
to  his  studies."  During  these  years  he  spent  much  time 
praying  for  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  his 
preparation  for  the  Master's  work.  In  making  his 
arrangements  to  go  to  college  he  was  greatly  aided  by 
Deacon  J.  C.  Duane,  for  whom  he  ever  had  a  most  grate- 
ful affection.  The  Cut  Banks  Church,  where  he  had 
been  baptized  by  the  Rev.  Hosea  Crowder,  ordained  him 
to  the  gospel  ministry.  Before  his  college  days  he  had 
served  as  a  brave  Confederate  soldier  all  through  the 
War. 

The  churches  to  which  he  preached  during  the  course 
of  his  ministry  were  Bethel,  Grafton,  Emmaus  (York 

237 


238         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

County),  Denbeigh,  James  City,  and  James  River.  Until 
the  organization  of  the  Peninsula  Association  his 
churches  were  all  in  the  bounds  of  the  Dover  Associa- 
tion. Several  of  these  churches  he  served  for  a  long  term 
of  years.  More  than  one  meeting-house  was  built  by 
him,  and  "the  cause  of  the  Lord  prospered  under  his 
faithful  ministry."  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark 
that  his  salary  was  never  large,  but  he  was  industrious, 
and  withal  a  prudent  man  of  business ;  and  so  it  came  to 
pass  that  before  his  death  he  had  secured  an  excellent 
home,  a  farm,  on  James  River,  near  Lee  Hall,  and  thus 
he  left  his  family  in  fairly  good  circumstances.  There 
was  only  one  child  by  his  first  marriage ;  this  son,  at  the 
time  of  his  father's  death,  was  an  earnest  member  of  the 
Second  Baptist  Church  of  Newport  News.  Before  her 
marriage  his  second  wife  was  Miss  Mary  L.  Williams, 
of  Elizabeth  City  County.  She  and  seven  of  her  eight 
children  survived  her  husband.  The  obituary,  prepared 
for  the  Minutes  of  the  General  Association  by  Rev. 
Vernon  FAnson,  is  the  basis  of  this  sketch;  it  closes  with 
these  words :  "For  forty  years  the  writer  knew  and  loved 
this  consecrated  Christian — this  humble  but  faithful 
pastor — this  excellent  and  successful  preacher  of  the 
gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  For  some  months  before  he  died 
his  health  was  poor,  and  finally,  in  the  full  hope  of  a 
glorious  resurrection  and  a  blessed  immortality,  he  fell 
asleep  in  his  own  home,  with  prayers  for  his  family  and 
children,  on  the  15th  of  June,  1909." 


BENJAMIN  FUNK 
1829-1909 

Among  the  sons  of  Joseph  Funk  was  Benjamin  Funk, 
who  was  born  December  29,  1829,  at  Singer's  Glen.  The 
name  of  "Funk,"  so  far,  at  least,  as  Virginia  is  con- 
cerned, is  inseparably  associated  with  the  little  village  of 
Singer's  Glen,  Rockingham  County.  This  spot  was  first 
known  as  Mountain  Valley,  until  Joseph  Funk  gave  it 
its  present  name.  He  was  the  grandson  of  Bishop 
Henry  Funk,  of  the  Mennonite  Church,  who  came  to 
America  in  1719.  In  1847,  at  Singer's  Glen,  Joseph 
founded  the  first  Mennonite  printing-house  in  this 
country.  Dr.  John  W.  Wayland  calls  Joseph  Funk  "The 
Father  of  Song  in  Northern  Virginia."  His  "Harmonia 
Sacra"  had  a  sale  of  some  80,000  copies,  passing  through 
seventeen  editions.  He  went  far  and  wide  over  the 
State  teaching  singing. 

Benjamin  Funk  was  educated  at  Richmond  College, 
where  he  studied  Latin,  Greek,  German,  Mathematics, 
and  English  (1854-55).  For  a  time,  after  his  leaving  col- 
lege, he  taught  school,  and  then  became  a  minister  of  the 
gospel.  After  a  few  years'  labor  in  Eastern  Virginia  he 
gave  the  rest  of  his  active  ministry,  which  lasted  till  about 
ten  years  before  his  death,  to  the  region  roundabout 
Singer's  Glen.  During  his  career  as  a  teacher  he  labored 
in  West  Virginia  and  at  Harrisonburg  and  other  points  in 
Rockingham  County.  He  and  his  brother,  Timothy, 
were  kindred  spirits  in  life,  and  in  death  they  were  not 
divided,  less  than  a  month  separating  their  departures 
from  earth.  Near  together,  on  the  hillside  that  overlooks 
the  valley  where  so  much  of  their  lives  was  spent,  rest 
the  bodies  of  these  two  good  men. 

239 


240         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Mr.  Funk  was  married  twice,  his  first  wife  being  Miss 
Louie  Burkholder,  of  Rockingham  County,  and  his 
second,  Miss  Mary  E.  Cowger,  of  Pendleton  County, 
West  Virginia.  Mr.  Boyd  H.  Funk,  of  Bedford  City, 
is  a  son  of  the  first  marriage.  Mr.  Funk  was  the  author 
of  the  "Life  and  Labors  of  Elder  John  Kline,"  a  volume 
of  480  pages,  published,  in  1900,  at  Elgin,  111.  John 
Kline  was  "a  Bunker  preacher  of  note,  who  lived  at 
Broadway,  Va.,  and  who  was  shot  to  death  near  his  home 
in  1864 — a  martyr  to  good  works." 

The  story  is  told  of  Robert  Hall,  the  famous  preacher, 
that  once  after  he  had  returned  from  the  asylum,  where 
he  had  been  confined  for  some  time,  a  man  said  to  him : 
"Mr.  Hall,  what  sent  you  to  the  asylum?"  The  great 
man's  answer  was :  "Brains,  sir,  brains,  what  will  never 
send  you  there."  Not  long  before  his  death,  after  a 
general  breakdown,  Mr.  Funk's  mind  was  impaired,  and 
he  was  taken  to  the  asylum  at  Staunton.  He  was  a  man 
of  such  bright  and  vigorous  intellect  that  Robert  Hall's 
reply  could  be  applied  in  his  case.  He  passed  away  at 
Staunton,  July  1,  1909,  and  the  funeral  took  place  at 
the  Singer's  Glen  Baptist  Church,  July  3d. 


SAMUEL  GRIFFIN  MASON 

1831-1909 

Not  only  as  pastor  of  various  churches  in  Franklin  and 
Henry  Counties,  but  also  in  schoolhouses  and  out-of-the- 
way  places  was  the  voice  of  Samuel  Griffin  Mason  heard 
as  he  proclaimed  the  glad  tidings  of  the  gospel.  He  was 
born  in  Franklin  County,  September  23,  1831,  and  began 
preaching  about  the  year  1870,  soon  after  which  time  he 
was  ordained,  upon  the  call  of  the  Providence  Church, 
of  which  body  he  was  a  member.  His  work  as  a 
preacher,  stopped  only  by  declining  health,  continued  up 
to  about  two  years  before  his  death.  During  this  period 
he  served  these  churches:  Stoney  Creek,  Trinity,  Mill 
Creek,  and  Sandy  Ridge,  in  Franklin  County,  and  Mt. 
Vernon,  in  Henry.  He  was  pastor  of  Trinity  some 
twenty  years.  He  served  all  through  the  Civil  War, 
proving  himself  a  faithful  soldier.  He  was  twice  mar- 
ried, his  first  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  in  Decem- 
ber, 1855,  being  Miss  Eliza  Pedigo,  of  Henry  County. 
She  died  October  26,  1896.  He  was  married  June  15. 
1904,  to  Miss  Anna  Barbour,  of  Snow  Hill,  Va. ;  she 
survived  him.  He  died  December  18,  1909.  He  was 
the  nephew  of  Rev.  Samuel  Griffin  Mason,  a  sketch  of 
whose  life  is  found  in  "Lives  of  Virginia  Baptist  Minis- 
ters." Fourth  Series. 


241 


16 


JOHN  RHODES  QUARLES 
1849-1909 

The  death  of  Mr.  John  Rhodes  Quarles,  Sr.,  when  the 
son  who  bore  his  name  was  still  a  youth,  led  to  this 
youth's  being  sent  to  the  home  of  his  uncle,  where  he 
grew  up.  This  uncle.  Dr.  Charles  Quarles,  after  many 
years  of  successful  practice  as  a  physician,  became  a 
minister  of  the  gospel.  As  a  layman  he  was  a  leader  in 
religious  work,  and  through  the  zeal  of  him  and  others 
their  church  became  one  of  the  most  efficient  in  the  upper 
end  of  the  Goshen  Association.  Since  his  father's  home 
was  broken  up,  the  young  man  was  fortunate  to  be  able 
to  live  in  his  uncle's  household.  This  home  had  a  good 
library,  and  was  not  far  from  the  Mechanicsville  Baptist 
Church.  Dr.  Quarles  had  the  aptitudes  of  a  scholar,  and 
was  withal  a  courteous,  cordial,  Christian  gentleman. 
Young  Quarles,  who  was  born  July  17,  1849,  was  first  a 
student  at  the  Gordonsville  Academy  and  then  at  Rich- 
mond College  (1870-71 ).  His  hope  as  to  the  gospel  min- 
istry and  as  to  his  college  career  was  marred  by  a  trouble 
with  his  eyes ;  so  he  turned  to  farming  and  teaching.  On  a 
portion  of  his  father's  estate  he  established  himself,  and, 
in  1873,  was  married  to  Miss  Emma  Wheeler,  of  Albe- 
marle  County.  Here  he  reared  a  family  of  five  children. 
His  work  on  the  farm  and  in  the  schoolroom  did  not 
prevent  great  activity  along  religious  lines.  More  and 
more  pastors  sought  his  help  for  supply  and  protracted- 
meeting  work,  and  at  last,  when  he  was  forty-five  years 
of  age,  a  call  to  the  regular  pastorate  came  to  him.  His 
shrinking  from  this  high  calling  was  overcome,  and  on 
December  30,  1894,  his  ordination  took  place  at  Mechan- 

242 


JOHN  RHODES  QUARLES  243 

icsville  Church.  The  churches  to  which  he  ministered  in 
the  remaining  fifteen  years  of  his  life  were  Lower  Gold 
Mine  and  Waldrops,  Louisa  County,  in  the  Goshen 
Association ;  and  Freddy's  Creek,  Free  Union,  and  Slate 
Hill,  Albemarle  County,  in  the  Albemarle  Association. 
Two  of  these  churches,  Waldrops  and  Freddy's  Creek, 
under  his  faithful  preaching  and  leadership,  broke  away 
from  the  time-honored,  but  not  ideal,  custom  of  once-a- 
month  preaching,  and,  each  securing  two  Sundays  a 
month,  formed  a  field,  with  him  as  their  pastor.  His 
people  were  devoted  to  him,  and  whenever  he  preached 
his  meeting-house  was  crowded.  In  1884  he  was  clerk 
of  the  Goshen  Association,  and  from  1903,  for  some 
seven  years,  he  filled  this  office  in  the  Albemarle  Associa- 
tion. In  his  preaching  he  honored  the  Bible  and  made 
the  sermon  the  instrument  for  the  accomplishment  of 
good.  He  was  genial  and  hospitable  in  his  nature,  loving 
to  have  his  friends  around  him  in  his  home.  In  this 
home  he  was  loved  with  a  devotion  little  short  of 
idolatry,  while  his  love  for  his  dear  ones  was  like  a 
strong,  flowing  stream.  He  passed  away  December  20, 
1909,  and  the  funeral,  attended  by  a  great  concourse  of 
people,  took  place  at  the  Mechanicsville  Church.  The 
services  were  conducted  by  Rev.  F.  H.  James,  he  being 
assisted  by  Rev.  Mr.  Hudson  and  Rev.  Dr.  F.  H.  Martin. 


JOHN  W.  McCOWN 
1833-1910 

In  that  decade  of  1830  to  1840,  so  remarkable  in 
American  history  for  its  material  development,  John  W. 
McCown  was  born.  In  1830  there  were  only  twenty- 
three  miles  of  railroad  in  the  United  States,  and  perhaps 
no  one  ever  dreamed,  in  those  days,  that  the  steam 
engine  with  its  train  of  cars  would  come,  in  less  than 
fifty  years,  along  the  Kanawha  River  and  through  Put- 
nam County.  It  was  in  this  county  (now  a  part  of  West 
Virginia)  that  John  W.  McCown,  one  of  six  children, 
was  born,  February  24,  1833.  His  father,  Joseph 
McCown,  was  widely  known  in  that  section,  while  his 
grandfather,  Charles  Franklin  McCown,  was  a  Lieuten- 
ant in  the  French  and  Indian  Wars.  His  mother,  Pamela 
Hughes,  was  a  descendant,  through  her  emigrant  ances- 
tor, of  a  distinguished  Welsh  family.  Mr.  McCown 
entered  Richmond  College  in  1853,  and  so  began  a  course 
of  studies  in  the  classics,  philosophy  and  theology,  that 
was  to  continue  through  his  life.  During  his  college  days 
he  was  one  of  a  trio  of  students  who  came  to  be  known 
as  "The  Triumvirate/'  This  name  is  to  be  credited 
rather  to  college  rivalries  and  animosities  than  to  the 
callow  wit  of  college  fledglings.  C.  C.  Chaplin,  J.  C. 
Long,  and  J.  W.  McCown  formed  this  "Triumvirate." 
Years  afterwards,  when  C.  C.  Chaplin  passed  away, 
Long  wrote  for  the  Religious  Herald  a  tribute  to  him, 
entitled  "A  Sprig  of  Acacia,"  and,  when  Long  died, 
McCown  sent  to  the  same  paper  an  article  about  the 
second  of  the  "Triumvirate"  to  depart,  called  "Another 
Sprig  of  Acacia."  In  1857  Mr.  McCown  graduated  at 

244 


JOHN  W.  McCOWN  245 

the  college,  the  other  graduates  that  year  being  Edward 
Epps,  W.  F.  G.  Garnett,  A.  T.  Goodwin,  John  M. 
Gregory,  Stephen  E.  Morgan,  and  Isaac  T.  Wallace.  On 
July  5th,  of  the  same  year,  Mr.  McCown  was  ordained 
to  the  gospel  ministry  at  Grace  Street  Baptist  Church, 
Richmond,  his  college  friend,  Mr.  Long,  being  ordained 
at  the  same  time.  Rev.  Dr.  R.  B.  C.  Howell  and  Rev. 
Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter  took  part  in  the  service.  The  same  year 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Katharine  Johnson.  She  was  a 
daughter  of  Fullerton  Johnson  and  of  Mary  Neal,  a 
granddaughter  of  the  distinguished  Griffith  Dickinson. 

Mr.  McCown's  first  pastorate  was  at  Clarksville,  Va., 
and  his  second  in  Campbell  County.  Here  he  organized 
a  company  for  service  in  the  Confederate  Army,  and  not 
long  afterwards  became  a  chaplain  in  Zollicoffer's 
Brigade,  to  which  he  was  attached  for  the  rest  of  his 
army  life.  In  1866  he  moved  to  Gordonsville,  Orange 
County,  where  he  lived  for  twenty-five  years,  serving, 
during  this  period,  with  fidelity  and  success,  many 
churches  in  that  general  section  of  country.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  know  that  in  1868,  when  he  was  a  missionary 
of  the  State  Mission  Board,  the  Gordonsville  Church, 
which  now  numbers  160  members,  had  42,  and  Orange 
Court  House  Church,  that  now  has  297,  reported  only 
33.  That  year  Mr.  McCown,  copying  the  custom  of  the 
Richmond  City  churches,  organized  a  Sunday  School 
Association,  made  up  of  five  neighboring  Sunday  schools, 
that  met  once  a  month.  Twice  he  held  pastorates  out- 
side of  Virginia,  first  at  Leaksville,  N.  C.,  and  then, 
some  years  later,  at  Richmond,  Ky.  For  a  season  he  was 
in  charge  of  the  church  at  Glade  Spring,  and  at  two 
periods  of  his  life  he  resided  at  Bowling  Green,  Va., 
being  pastor  of  the  Calvary  Church  at  that  place.  Dur- 
ing his  pastorate  at  Bowling  Green  a  young  negro  man, 
who  was  ignorant,  being  scarcely  above  a  brute  in  intelli- 


246         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

gence,  a  most  pitiable  creature,  abject  from  fear,  was 
tried  and  hanged  at  the  courthouse.  Mr.  McCown  went 
daily  to  see  the  poor  wretch,  talking  and  praying  with 
him,  and  brought  him,  it  seemed,  to  a  glimmering  percep- 
tion of  the  grace  of  God.  Then,  when  the  man's  fatal 
day  came,  he  walked  with  him  to  the  scaffold  and  held 
his  hand  to  the  last.  During  the  days  that  he  lived  at 
Gordonsville  and  Bowling  Green  he  served,  for  longer 
or  shorter  periods,  the  following  churches :  Upper  Gold 
Mine,  Pigeon  Run,  Liberty,  Pleasant  Grove,  Louisa 
Court  House,  North  Pamunkey,  Upper  Zion,  Providence 
(Caroline  County),  Crooked  Run,  and  Bethel. 

His  alma  mater  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Divinity,  and,  if  culture  and  scholarship  are  the  basis 
of  such  a  degree,  he  was  most  worthy  of  the  honor.  He 
was  a  graceful  prose  writer,  and  in  his  early  days  he 
expressed  his  thoughts  in  verse.  The  beauty  of  his 
diction  was  remarkable.  Quite  recently  an  old  woman 
gave  this  testimony :  "He  wrote  me  the  most  touchingly 
beautiful  letter  when  my  father  died  thirty  years  ago;  I 
have  it  yet,  and  my  brother,  in  another  continent,  keeps 
a  copy  of  it."  It  seems  very  unfortunate  that  he  did  not 
exercise  more  freely  his  remarkable  gifts  in  this  direction. 
His  sermons,  which  are  extant,  are  "fine  examples  of 
literary  craftsmanship."  Not  only  in  his  sermons,  but 
also  in  his  prayers,  "his  artistic  temperament  found 
outlet."  When  he  led  a  congregation  in  prayer  he  lifted 
them  away  from  "sordid  things  and  into  the  atmosphere 
of  the  infinite."  His  former  congregations  still  speak 
of  his  prayers.  One  of  his  friends  said,  a  year  after  his 
death:  "If  I  could  only  have  him  pray  with  me  I  could 
bear,  I  believe,  this  heavy  sorrow  of  mine."  His  keen 
intellect,  his  eager  thirst  for  knowledge  and  service,  led 
him  to  aspire  to  wide  fields  of  usefulness,  but  his  sensi- 
tive nature  suffered  from  the  jars  of  busy  life  and  made 


JOHN  W.  McCOWN  247 

him  shrink  from  the  struggle  for  place.  "He  deliberately 
chose  the  quiet  field  for  his  sowing  and  there  remained 
to  garner  a  rich  harvest  of  love  and  appreciation."  Not 
only  in  mind  and  heart,  but  also  in  person,  he  was 
attractive.  "His  figure  was  tall  and  well  proportioned, 
and  preserved  its  youthful  slender  ness  through  life.  His 
regular  features  were  modeled  with  almost  feminine 
delicacy,  the  nose  straight,  the  mouth  sensitive  and 
mobile,  the  eyes  a  beautiful  blue-gray,  the  hair  black,  the 
broad,  virile,  thoughtful  brow  dominating  the  whole 
face." 

Some  ten  years  before  his  death  a  growing  weakness 
of  the  throat  and  the  breaking  down  of  a  body  never 
overstrong,  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  give  up  the 
labor  of  the  regular  pastorate.  From  this  time  to  the 
end  he  was  with  his  own  people  in  Virginia  and  Ken- 
tucky. He  died  in  Richmond  on  January  5,  1910.  On 
the  fifth  day  of  the  following  June  a  beautiful  service 
to  his  memory  was  held  at  Gordonsville.  Addresses 
were  made  by  Rev.  J.  B.  Cook  and  Rev.  L.  J.  Haley, 
and  words  of  appreciation  were  spoken  by  many  in  the 
congregation.  The  following  day  the  grave  in  Maple- 
wood  Cemetery  was  covered  with  tall  white  lilies  and  a 
blanket  of  red  roses.  The  children  who  survived  him 
were  Mrs.  Charles  P.  Winston,  Mrs.  Carter  Helm  Jones, 
Mrs.  Louis  H.  Czapski,  Mrs.  John  Hart,  and  Albert 
McCown. 


ROBERT  BAILEY  SANFORD 
1846-1910 

In  the  home  of  his  father,  Rev.  John  H.  Sanford,  a 
Methodist  preacher,  on  February  28,  1846,  Robert 
Bailey  Sanford  was  born,  being  one  of  seven  children. 
His  birthplace  was  at  "Federal  Hill,"  a  beautiful  home 
overlooking  Kinsale,  in  the  historic  county  of  Westmore- 
land. His  mother  was  Susan  Bailey  Sanford,  a  pious 
woman.  "The  San  fords  and  Baileys  have  been,  since 
prior  to  the  Revolution,  staunch  members  and  supporters 
of  the  Methodist  Church."  When  the  boy  was  eleven 
years  old  his  mother  passed  away,  her  last  words  to  him 
being :  "Bailey,  my  son,  be  a  good  boy.  God  will  take 
care  of  you."  This  dying  message  was  never  forgotten, 
and  no  doubt,  under  God,  had  a  blessed  influence  on 
Bailey's  life.  At  the  age  of  thirteen,  and  again  after  the 
close  of  the  War,  he  entered  as  a  scholar  the  Kilmarnock 
Male  Academy,  Lancaster  County,  his  teacher,  at  both 
periods,  being  Mr.  William  Chase.  When  the  War  broke 
out,  this  youth  of  fifteen  wanted  to  enlist,  but  as  he  was 
feeble  in  body  his  father  would  not  give  his  consent,  and 
so  it  was  not  until  he  was  eighteen  that  he  went  forth  to 
the  defense  of  his  country,  but  it  was,  all  his  life,  a  regret 
to  him  that  he  had  given  only  one  year  of  service  as  a 
soldier.  Upon  leaving  school  he  took  up  his  chosen  pro- 
fession of  teaching.  Late  in  the  night,  when  he  was 
twenty-two  years  old,  he  was  converted,  and  so  definite 
and  clear  was  his  experience  of  God's  grace  that  never, 
to  the  end,  did  he  doubt  his  salvation,  and  his  exemplary 
Christian  life  gave  others  convincing  proof  of  the 
genuineness  of  his  turning  to  God.  Upon  his  c6nversion 

248 


ROBERT  BAILEY  SANFORD  249 

he  became  a  member  of  the  Methodist  Church,  but  after 
his  marriage,  which  led  to  a  thorough  reading  of  the 
Scriptures,  he  united  with  the  Baptists,  being  baptized  by 
the  Rev.  A.  B.  Dunaway  in  the  Corrotman  River, 
Lancaster  County.  His  marriage  took  place  at  Merry 
Point,  Lancaster  County,  Virginia,  on  March  17,  1869, 
the  bride  being  Miss  Alverta  S.  Callahan,  the  accom- 
plished daughter  of  Thomas  C.  and  Hannah  G.  Callahan. 
She  had  been  educated  at  the  Kilmarnock  Seminary, 
which  was  presided  over  by  the  Rev.  Addison  Hall.  She 
was  a  zealous  Christian  and  a  staunch  Baptist,  and  a 
wife  who  was  never  weary  of  helping  her  husband  bear 
the  burdens  of  life.  Upon  his  conversion  Mr.  Sanford 
felt  called  to  preach.  This  conviction  was  so  strong  with 
him  that  although  the  door  seemed  closed  at  first  for  his 
entry  into  the  ministry,  nevertheless  he  found  work,  after 
teaching  for  some  time,  as  a  colporteur,  first  among  the 
Baptist  churches  of  the  Northern  Neck  and  then  for  the 
Sunday  School  and  Bible  Board  of  the  General  Associa- 
tion. More  than  once,  at  later  periods  in  his  life,  he 
again  engaged  in  this  form  of  religious  work.  As  a  col- 
porteur, as  in  everything  to  which  he  put  his  hand,  he  was 
conscientious,  aiming  to  do  his  best.  In  this  sphere  of 
service  he  began  to  exercise  his  gifts  as  a  public  speaker, 
and  finally,  on  May  5,  1889,  he  was  ordained  to  the 
gospel  ministry,  the  presbytery  being  made  up  of  these 
ministers:  J.  M.  Pilcher,  R.  R.  Acree,  James  Wright, 
Duncan  McLeod. 

I  Hiring  the  course  of  his  ministry  he  served  these 
churches  in  Virginia:  Ettricks  and  Matoaca,  near 
Petersburg;  Union,  on  Chincoteague  Island;  and  the 
Tabernacle  Church,  Newport  News ;  and  these  churches 
in  Maryland :  Vienna  and  Branch  Hill.  His  salary  was 
never  large,  and  his  health  never  the  most  vigorous,  but 
he  would  take  up  his  first  love,  colportage  work,  when  he 


250         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

could  not  preach ;  and  so,  with  his  own  earnest  struggles 
and  those  of  his  faithful  wife,  not  only  were  the  affairs 
of  the  household  kept  going,  but  the  eight  children  were 
given  a  good  education.  When  the  years  of  his  active 
service  were  ended  he  proved  that  he  knew  how  to  be  a 
good  listener  to  other  preachers,  and  a  faithful  one  in  the 
ranks  and  in  the  pew  as  well  as  in  the  place  of  leadership. 
His  piety  was  deep,  and  his  life  pure,  and  he  loved  to 
commend,  in  private  no  less  than  in  public,  his  Saviour. 
On  Wednesday,  January  19,  1910,  he  was  stricken  with 
paralysis,  and  the  following  Tuesday,  January  25,  a 
few  moments  after  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  he 
came  peacefully  to  the  end  of  a  useful  life.  The  funeral, 
which  took  place  at  the  Second  Baptist  Church,  Newport 
News,  was  one  of  the  largest  ever  witnessed  in  that  city. 
It  was  conducted  by  his  pastor,  Rev.  J.  T.  Riddick,  who 
was  assisted  by  these  Baptist  ministers :  Lloyd  T.  Wil- 
son, E.  P.  Jones,  S.  L.  Naff,  T.  L.  Seymore,  W.  C.  Sale, 
M.  F.  Sanford,  and  Rev.  E.  T.  Welford,  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church,  and  Rev.  T.  J.  Taylor,  of  the  Methodist 
Church.  The  Magruder  Camp  of  Confederate  Veterans, 
of  which  camp  he  was  chaplain,  attended  the  funeral  in 
a  body.  The  burial  took  place  in  "Green  Lawn,"  the 
Newport  News  cemetery.  He  was  survived  by  his  wife 
and  these  eight  children :  Dr.  H.  B.  Sanford,  Richmond ; 
Mrs.  George  Murray,  Mrs.  D.  B.  Simpson,  Mrs.  Harry 
Scholfield,  J.  C.  Sanford,  T.  W.  Sanford,  Newport 
News;  R.  B.  Sanford,  Jr.,  U.  S.  N.,  and  Mrs.  W.  Ward 
Hill,  Amherst,  Va.  This  sketch  is  based  wholly  on  a 
tribute  to  Mr.  Sanford  written  by  Rev.  J.  T.  Riddick  and 
published  in  the  Religious  Herald.  The  facts  given  in 
this  sketch,  and  in  some  cases  the  language,  are  taken 
from  Mr.  Riddick's  article. 


ONAN  ELLYSON 
1826-1910 

Rev.  Onan  Ellyson,  younger  by  two  years  than  his 
brother,  Henry  K.  Ellyson,  outlived  his  brother  many 
years  and  reached  the  ripe  old  age  of  eighty-five.  He 
was  born  in  May,  1826,  and  he  passed  from  the  scenes 
of  earth  February  21,  1910.  His  body  was  laid  to  rest 
at  Washington,  D.  C.  His  birthplace  was  Richmond, 
and  Lynchburg  the  place  of  his  death.  In  his  early  years, 
being  left  an  orphan,  he  worked  first  with  his  brother  in 
Richmond  and  then  on  his  own  account  in  Petersburg  as 
a  printer  and  publisher.  At  the  beginning  of  the  War 
he  moved  to  Charlotte  County,  and  soon  afterwards  gave 
up  a  lucrative  business  to  engage  in  evangelistic  work. 
In  1847  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Steel,  of  Rich- 
mond. For  many  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  Second 
Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  until  he  moved  to  Peters- 
burg, when  he  united  with  the  First  Church  of  that  city. 
With  others  he  went  out  from  the  First  Church  to  organ- 
ize the  Byrne  Street  (now  the  Second)  Church  of 
Petersburg.  Of  this  body  he  was  an  active  member, 
being  a  deacon  and  superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school. 
About  1865  he  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  and 
presently  became  a  missionary  of  the  State  Mission 
Board.  One  year  during  his  service  for  the  State  Mis- 
sion Board,  while  laboring  in  the  Appomattox  Associa- 
tion, he  made  this  report  as  to  his  work:  "I  am  encour- 
aged in  my  work.  I  expect  to  baptize  a  number  more  in 
May,  amongst  them  one  Presbyterian,  one  Methodist, 
and  one  Episcopalian.  I  preach  for  an  anti-mission 
church,  by  their  request,  whenever  I  visit  Campbell 
County."  For  this  year  he  had  baptized  twenty-three 

251 


252         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

persons  and  arranged  to  organize  two  new  churches,  one 
in  Charlotte  and  one  in  Campbell.  It  was  at  this  time 
that  he  organized  the  first  Men's  Missionary  Society  of 
Lynchburg.  During  his  years  in  the  Appomattox  Asso- 
ciation, besides  the  work  he  did  on  fields  where  there 
were  no  church  organizations,  he  was  pastor  of  these 
churches :  Flat  Creek,  Burkeville,  Kedron,  and  Midway. 
After  this,  his  life  work  continued,  in  what  was  then  the 
Potomac  Association,  as  pastor  of  the  Berry ville  Church. 
Here  he  remained  some  five  or  six  years.  His  next  field 
was  out  of  Virginia,  namely,  at  Anacostia,  Washington 
City,  where  he  did  extension  work.  Upon  his  return  to 
Virginia  he  became  pastor  in  the  Rappahannock  Associa- 
tion, being  pastor  first  of  Bethlehem  and  Enon  Churches 
and  later  of  Oakland. 

His  last  years  were  spent  with  his  daughters  in  King 
George  County  and  in  Lynchburg.  In  Lynchburg  he 
attended  the  Cabell  Street  (now  Rivermont  Avenue  Bap- 
tist) Church,  making  himself  most  helpful  to  the  pastor. 
He  visited  a  great  deal  among  the  members,  urging  them 
to  fall  into  line  with  all  the  plans  of  the  pastor  and  the 
church.  He  was  much  interested  in  the  erection  of  the 
new  meeting-house,  and  attended  the  public  services  of 
God's  house  whenever  his  strength  made  this  possible. 
"He  was  always  optimistic ;  the  past  was  good,  but  the 
present  is  better,  and  the  future  is  going  to  be  still 
better."  He  loved  children,  and  was  in  the  habit,  in  these 
last  years,  of  saving  his  street-car  fare  that  he  might 
invest  in  candy  and  peanuts  for  his  little  friends.  Rev. 
Oscar  E.  Sams  declares  that  in  Mr.  Ellyson  he  had,  from 
the  very  first  of  his  pastorate  in  Lynchburg,  a  most 
loving,  sympathetic,  and  helpful  fellow-worker. 

Mr.  Ellyson's  children  are  Mrs.  A.  B.  Harvey,  Geo.  S. 
Kllyson,  Mrs.  S.  B.  Redding,  Mrs.  J.  N.  Owens,  Miss 
Alollie  E.  Ellyson,  Dr.  R.  M.  Ellyson. 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE* 

1837-1910 

Tht-  Ua\\thornes  of  Xe\v  England  were  rank  Puritans. 
In  "the  conviction  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  witches  at 
Salem,  Mass.,  the  judge  and  the  prosecuting  attorney 
were  both  of  this  family.  People  of  this  name  have  been 
found  in  Vermont,  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Alabama, 
and  Florida,  and  it  is  at  least  possible  that  all  these 
branches  came  from  the  New  England  stock.  From 
Lunenburg  County.  Virginia,  certain  Hawthornes  moved 
to  North  Carolina.  From  here  one  family,  at  least,  emi- 
grated to  Alabama.  It  was  an  arduous  trip,  in  those 
days,  from  North  Carolina  to  Alabama,  through  virgin 
forests  over  an  unbroken  track.  On  this  journey  Kedar 
Hawthorne  was  a  youth.  When  at  last  their  destination 
was  reached  he  enlisted  for  the  Seminole  War,  which 
was  then  being  waged  in  Florida.  His  courage  and  vigor 
were  great.  Once  he  was  sent  on  foot  with  a  sack  of 
corn  to  the  nearest  mill,  twenty  miles  away.  Before  his 
return  Murder  Creek  was  swollen  to  dangerous  propor- 
tions by  a  sudden  rain.  Heavy  logs  ever  and  anon  floated 
by,  and  night  was  closing  in.  To  stay  on  the  bank  all 
night  meant  exposure  to  wild  beasts  or  the  Indians.  To 
swim  the  stream  with  the  meal  was  no  easy  work.  The 
latter  alternative,  however,  was  successfully  accom- 
plished. In  1825  Kedar  Hawthorne  was  married  to  Miss 
Martha  Baggett,  and  later  husband  and  wife  were  con- 
verted under  the  preaching  of  Rev.  Alexander  Trevis,  a 
pioneer  Baptist  preacher.  On  May  16,  1837,  at  Mt. 

*This  sketch,  in  the  main,  is  based  on  an  unpublished  biography 
of  Dr.  Hawthorne  by  Rev.  B.  F.  Riley,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  Dr.  Rik-y 
kindly  permits  this  use  of  his  biography. 

253 


254         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Moriah,  Wilcox  County,  Alabama,  where  his  father  had 
organized,  and  was  pastor  of,  the  Baptist  Church,  James 
Boardman  Hawthorne  was  born.  His  birthplace  was  a 
log  hut,  and  his  middle  name  was  for  George  Boardman, 
the  missionary  to  the  Karens,  whose  life  Kedar  Haw- 
thorne had  just  read  with  burning  enthusiasm.  Young 
Hawthorne's  first  school  was  near  Camden,  his  teacher 
being  named  Love.  Here  the  boy  enjoyed  keenly  both 
the  coon  hunts  by  night  and  the  all-day  singing  classes 
common  at  that  time,  when  the  oblong  Carmina  Sacra 
was  used.  At  twelve  years  of  age  he  went  to  an  academy 
at  Oak  Hill,  Wilcox  County,  the  teacher  being  one 
Samuel  Jones.  Here,  in  a  declamation  contest,  the  timid 
boy,  a  contestant  against  his  choice,  won  the  prize,  a 
copy  of  Cowper's  poems.  No  wonder  that  in  that  day, 
when  books  were  few,  he  should  have  poured  over  the 
new  volume  and  learned  by  heart  "John  Gilpin,"  which 
charmed  him  greatly.  The  next  year,  at  the  Camden 
Institute,  whose  principal  was  Lucius  Brutus  Johnson,  a 
second  victory  in  the  art  of  public  speaking  brought 
young  Hawthorne  a  gold  medal,  and  gave  clearer  evi- 
dence of  the  future  man.  This  time  his  rivals  were  able. 
On  the  way  to  the  contest  he  heard  some  one  declare,  in 
a  discussion  as  to  the  chances  of  the  several  candidates, 
that  he  was  sure  to  win  if  he  only  managed  his  long  legs 
right.  He  was  wise  enough  to  make  good  use  of  this  ad- 
vice so  unconsciously  given.  Since  in  those  days  the  law 
was  in  very  high  repute,  no  wonder  that  the  young  man 
decided  to  give  his  life  to  this  profession.  In  1851,  at  his 
father's  church,  under  the  preaching  of  Rev.  C.  F.  Sturgis, 
he  was  converted  and  became  a  member  of  the  church. 
Finally  he  entered  Howard  College.  Here  he  gloried  in 
the  library,  and  soon  became  the  orator  of  the  school.  At 
this  time  Noah  K.  Davis  had  charge  of  the  English  De- 
partment of  Howard.  His  standard  was  so  high,  being 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE      255 

nothing  short  of  Addison,  that  his  students  worked  in 
vain  to  win  his  praise.  At  last,  in  desperation,  a  passage 
was  copied  from  "The  Spectator"  and  handed  in  as  an 
original  composition.  The  paper  came  back  severely 
criticized  with  such  comments  as  "pompous,"  "turgid," 
"ridiculous."  Years  afterwards  Dr.  Davis,  being  Pro- 
fessor of  Moral  Philosophy  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, upon  hearing  this  incident  for  the  first  time, 
exclaimed :  "Well,  I  always  had  a  lingering  suspicion 
that  I  was  a  fool,  and  this  confirms  it."  During  Mr. 
Hawthorne's  career  at  Howard  the  college  was  destroyed 
fey  fire,  the  colored  janitor,  Harry,  dying  the  death  of 
a  hero,  having  rushed  through  the  flames  to  give  the 
alarm.  After  three  years  at  Howard,  Mr.  Hawthorne 
decided  to  give  up  his  fourth  year  and  his  degree  and  go 
out  at  once  into  active  life.  He  commenced  reading  law 
with  the  firm  of  Chandler,  Smith  &  Herndon,  in  Mobile. 
Along  with  his  law  studies  went  much  public  speaking. 
Before  long  he  was  the  pet  of  the  people,  being  regarded 
as  a  boy  orator.  In  the  campaign  of  1856  he  supported 
Buchanan  against  Fillmore.  On  one  occasion  his  mimicry 
of  his  opponent,  who  had  but  one  eye,  caught  the  crowd. 
When  he  realized  that  he  had  been  guilty  of  discourtesy 
and  bad  taste  in  taking  advantage  of  the  physical 
infirmity  of  his  adversary,  his  prompt  and  frank  apology 
made  him  yet  more  popular.  During  his  career  as  a 
young  political  speaker  several  events  occurred  which 
combined  to  change  the  current  of  his  life.  On  one  occa- 
sion, out  in  the  rural  districts,  after  he  had  spoken,  the 
other  side  called  loudly  for  "Billie  Jones."  Mr.  Jones, 
who  was  a  preacher  and  a  speaker  of  unusual  ability, 
responded  to  the  call  and  gave  his  youthful  rival  such  an 
unmerciful  "drubbing"  that  reply  was  impossible.  At 
another  time  and  place  the  young  lawyer  had  an  old  man 
in  his  crowd  who  greatly  helped  him  by  his  rapt  atten- 


256         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

tion.  After  his  speech  was  over  he  sought  out  the 
venerable  citizen,  but  upon  thanking  him  for  his  helpful 
attention,  he  received  this  reply :  "Oh,  'twarn't  that — 
'twarn't  that.  I  waz  jest  a-thinkin'  that  er  young  feller 
like  you  might  do  somethin'  fer  hisself  in  this  world  if 
he'd  jest  quit  that  tarnal  foolishness  uv  a-goin'  over  the 
country  a-makin'  uv  speeches.  What  in  the  name  of 
common  sense  is  yer  a-throwin'  away  yer  time  fer  when 
ye  can  be  a-doin'  of  somethin'  shore  'nuff?"  About  the 
same  time  Mr.  David  Cook,  a  wealthy  planter  and  a 
friend  of  Mr.  Hawthorne's  father,  along  with  Col. 
Richard  Hawthorne,  his  cousin,  urged  the  young  man  to 
become  a  minister  of  the  gospel.  Col.  Hawthorne  did 
more  than  argue  the  matter.  He  made  an  appointment 
for  the  young  lawryer  to  preach,  and,  without  waiting  for 
the  young  man's  consent,  put  out  messengers  whose 
announcement  collected  a  large  crowd.  Eventually,  as  a 
result,  surely  in  a  measure,  of  these  various  experiences, 
Mr.  Hawthorne  decided  to  give  up  the  law  and  become  a 
preacher. 

His  decision  to  preach  and  his  marriage  came  near  the 
same  time.  On  August  27,  1857,  he  and  Miss  Emma 
Hutchinson,  who  was  only  sixteen  years  old,  were  united 
in  marriage,  and  the  next  month  he  began  his  theological 
studies  at  Howard  College,  Marion,  Ala.  During  this 
course  at  Howard  the  President,  Dr.  Henry  Talbird, 
often  took  young  Hawthorne  out  into  the  country  and 
put  him  up  to  preach,  believing  that  the  only  way  to  learn 
how  to  preach  is  to  preach.  While  at  Howard  the  young 
couple  had  their  first  great  sorrow  in  the  death  of  their 
firstborn,  Yancey  Boardman.  During  his  first  vacation, 
being  in  Mobile,  Mr.  Hawthorne  was  called  on  to  preach. 
His  text  was :  "Prisoners  of  hope."  It  is  known  that 
two  persons  were  converted  under  this  sermon.  One  was 
Mrs.  Hawthorne.  Some  months  afterwards  a  sea 


JAMES  BOARDMAX  HAWTHORNE       257 

captain,  who  was  baptized  by  Rev.  Dr.  Powhatan  K. 
Collins,  one  of  the  Mobile  pastors,  testified  that  seemingly 
by  accident  he  had  heard  the  sermon  about  the  "prisoners 
of  hope"  and  had  been  converted.  With  another  early 
sermon  of  Mr.  Hawthorne  an  amusing  incident  is  con- 
nected. Since  it  was  his  habit  to  write  very  carefully 
what  he  expected  to  say,  and  then  commit  to  memory, 
his  stock  of  sermons  was  marked  by  quality  rather  than 
by  quantity.  At  the  end  of  the  session  he  arranged  for 
a  series  of  preaching  appointments,  hoping  thus  both  to 
do  good  and  to  replete  his  pocket-book.  At  the  first 
appointment  his  sermon  on  "Rejoice  evermore' 
charmed  a  Mrs.  C —  -  that  she  decided  to  hear  him  at 
Fatama,  and  again  she  heard  the  sermon  on  the  words : 
"Rejoice  evermore."  At  Concord,  for  the  third  time, 
and  at  Pineville,  for  the  fourth,  she  heard  the  same 
sermon.  During  his  last  session  at  Howard  he  and  his 
fellow-student,  J.  Alexander  Chambliss,  planned  a 
preaching  tour  through  southern  Alabama.  Between 
them  they  had  fifteen  sermons,  Hawthorne  eight  and 
Chambliss  seven.  When  these  fifteen  sermons  had  been 
preached  at  one  point  the  young  preachers  moved  on  to 
the  next  place.  No  amount  of  persuasion,  no  high  degree 
of  interest  could  induce  the  young  theologians  to  con- 
tinue their  meeting  when  once  the  fifteen  sermons  had 
been  preached.  Doubtless  the  people  at  each  place  won- 
dered and  never  knew  why  the  services  could  not  pos- 
sibly be  continued.  Not  long  after  this,  in  a  meeting, 
Mr.  Hawthorne  was  forced  to  go  on  beyond  the  eight 
sermons  by  reason  of  the  sudden  illness  of  the  pastor  he 
was  helping,  and  the  impossibility  of  getting  any  other 
preacher.  Against  his  serious  protest  the  meeting  was 
thrust  upon  him.  He  threw  himself  on  God,  the  meeting 
went  on,  and  before  its  close  some  eighty  persons  had 
made  profession  of  their  faith  in  Christ.  He  was 


17 


258         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ordained   to   the   ministry   at   Friendship   Church,    Pine 
Apple,  Wilcox  County,  Alabama,  September  22,  1859. 

During  the  first  year  of  his  ministry,  while  living  at 
Pine  Apple  and  preaching  to  Fellowship,  Friendship,  and 
Snow  Hill  Churches,  he  had  much  time  for  study  and 
reading.  And  in  his  leisure  moments  he  undertook  to 
learn  to  play  on  the  violin,  but  his  wife's  verdict  that  he 
had  no  gift  for  music  led  him  to  give  up  this  pursuit. 
After  one  year  he  became  pastor  of  the  Broad  Street 
Church  of  Mobile.  Here,  besides  being  most  popular  as 
a  preacher,  he  carried  on,  in  the  columns  of  the  South- 
western Baptist,  of  which  paper  Dr.  Samuel  Henderson 
was  editor,  a  discussion  with  Rev.  J.  J.  D.  Renfroe  on 
the  principles  of  Landmarkism,  Mr.  Hawthorne  opposing 
these  views.  When  the  Civil  War  came  on  he  became 
the  chaplain  of  the  21st  Alabama  Regiment  of  Volun- 
teers, his  church  continuing  to  pay  his  salary.  About  this 
time  a  book  appeared  entitled  "Armageddon."  It  de- 
clared that  the  world  would  be  destroyed  about  1863. 
Mr.  Hawthorne  adopted  the  author's  view  and  preached 
more  than  once  a  sermon  setting  forth  this  startling 
announcement.  An  old  carpenter  by  the  name  of  Hutto, 
hearing  that  the  sermon  was  to  be  preached  at  Rock 
West,  got  on  his  horse  and  rode  twenty-five  miles  across 
the  country  to  that  point.  Upon  his  arrival  he  announced 
that  he  wanted  to  see  Board  Hawthorne.  He  was 
informed  that  the  preacher  had  already  gone  into  the  pul- 
pit, and  that  he  could  see  him  after  the  service.  That 
would  not  do.  He  must  see  him  at  once.  But  why  such 
urgency?  He  wanted  to  get  the  preacher  to  put  off  the 
end  of  the  world  for  a  while  until  the  South  could  whip 
the  terrible  Yankees. 

The  years  of  the  Civil  War  sorely  tried  the  Southern 
people,  and  the  Reconstruction  Period  was  worse.  In 
the  fall  of  1865  Mr.  Hawthorne  became  pastor  at  Green- 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE      259 

ville,  Ala.  After  a  year  here,  during  which  time  great 
crowds  attended  his  ministry  and  the  church  house  was 
renovated,  he  accepted  a  call  to  Selma,  one  of  the  best 
pastorates  in  the  State.  The  problem  presented  by  the 
awful  coalition  of  the  negroes  and  their  unscrupulous 
white  leaders  was  one  that  no  loyal  citizen  could  disre- 
gard. One  day  Mr.  Hawthorne  heard  that  a  certain 
Dr.  Henry,  a  "scalawag,"  was  leading  a  throng  of 
negroes,  proposing  to  occupy  and  use  the  First  Baptist 
Church.  Mr.  Hawthorne  informed  them  that  they  could 
not  carry  out  their  plan.  The  town  was  threatened  with 
a  mob.  Inflammatory  speeches  were  made.  Various  citi- 
zens spoke,  but  Mr.  Hawthorne's  words  did  more  than 
all  else  to  save  the  day.  The  troubled  state  of  affairs  led 
Mr.  Hawthorne,  Rev.  W.  Joseph  Lowry,  the  Presby- 
terian pastor,  and  Rev.  C.  N.  Campbell,  the  Methodist 
pastor,  to  begin  a  series  of  union  services.  A  daily 
prayer-meeting  was  held  at  eleven  o'clock  in  the  Metho- 
dist Church,  its  location  being  the  most  central.  The 
meeting  grew  so  in  power  that  instead  of  one  service 
each  day  three  were  held,  at  the  hours  of  nine,  eleven, 
and  five.  Throngs  attended.  For  five  weeks  the  special 
services  continued.  So  far  as  the  Baptist  Church  was 
concerned,  the  revival  spirit  prevailed  for  two  years. 
Quietly,  in  "an  atmosphere  vibrant  with  prayer  and 
praise,"  the  good  work  went  on,  each  Sunday  witnessing 
an  ingathering  of  souls. 

Mr.  Hawthorne's  first  appearance  before  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention  resulted  in  his  being  called  to  the 
Franklin  Square  Baptist  Church  of  Baltimore.  In  1867 
the  Convention  met  in  that  city.  Upon  the  advice  of  his 
friend,  J.  L.  M.  Curry,  Mr.  Hawthorne  decided  to  attend 
the  meeting.  The  weather  turned  suddenly  quite  cool, 
and  Mr.  Hawthorne  had  to  purchase  heavier  clothes.  He 
was  so  tall  that  he  was  not  able  to  obtain  a  ready-made 


260         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

suit  that  really  fit  him.  Through  the  influence  of 
J.  •  L.  M.  Curry,  Mr.  Hawthorne  was  put  up  Sunday 
afternoon  at  a  great  mass-meeting  to  speak  on  what  was 
then  designated  Domestic  Missions.  His  appearance,  in 
his  short  trousers  and  his  ill-fitting  coat,  was  not  pre- 
possessing. During  the  War  he  had  pressed  the  claims 
of  this  Board  most  successfully,  and  this,  doubtless,  was 
an  element  in  the  success  of  his  address  in  Baltimore. 
His  appeal  was  a  masterly  oratorical  effort,  and  gave 
him  high  rank  as  a  speaker  among  Southern  Baptists. 
The  following  fall  he  began  his  Baltimore  pastorate. 
The  condition  of  the  church  was  not  the  best,  but  with 
holy  boldness  the  new  pastor  began  a  meeting  with  a  sun- 
rise prayer-meeting  every  morning  and  a  service  each 
night.  The  work  went  on  for  six  weeks,  the  pastor  doing 
all  the  preaching.  The  church  was  refreshed  and  its 
membership  greatly  increased.  At  the  last  service, 
during  the  singing  of  the  last  hymn,  a  wealthy  wholesale 
merchant,  who  afterwards  became  a  tower  of  strength 
and  influence  for  God,  made  public  profession  of  his  faith 
in  Christ. 

From  Baltimore  Mr.  Hawthorne  went  to  Albany, 
N.  Y.  He  remained  here  less  than  a  year.  Some  trouble 
with  his  throat  led  him  to  go  to  Albany,  but  its  too  severe 
winter  climate  made  it  necessary  for  him  to  leave.  His 
next  pastorate  was  in  Louisville.  Here  he  led  the  colony 
of  ninety-six  members  who  went  out  from  the  Walnut 
Street  Church  to  organize  the  Broadway  Church.  Dur- 
ing his  four  years  here  the  membership  grew  to  over  four 
hundred,  and  at  a  cost  of  $108,000  a  beautiful  meeting- 
house was  built.  The  Tabernacle  Church,  New  York 
City,  was  his  next  charge.  His  preaching  here  was 
marked  in  an  unusual  degree  by  his  direct  appeals  to  the 
heart  rather  than  the  head,  and  great  crowds  attended 
upon  his  ministry.  As  pastor,  no  less  than  in  the  pulpit, 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE      261 

he  gave  himself  to  unremitting  labors.  His  incessant 
labors  brought  upon  him  a  serious  illness.  For  six 
months  he  was  in  a  most  critical  condition.  His  life  was 
despaired  of.  His  brother  pastor,  Dr.  R.  S.  MacArthur, 
who  visited  him  often,  one  day  bade  him  farewell,  never 
expecting  to  greet  him  again  in  the  flesh.  The  night 
that  the  crisis  was  successfully  passed  five  hundred 
people  were  praying  together  for  his  recovery.  His 
people  ordered  him  away  for  a  six  months'  rest,  putting 
into  his  hands  a  purse  of  $1,400.  Afton,  Va.,  that 
beautiful  spot  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
overlooking  the  fair  fields  of  Nelson,  whither  Mr.  Haw- 
thorne now  turned,  came  to  be  the  place  to  which  he  went 
again  and  again  in  after  years  for  seasons  of  rest  and 
vacation.  The  Goodloes  were  famous  hosts,  and  the 
chance  for  deer  along  the  mountain  side  afforded  a  sport 
in  which  he  gloried. 

His  experiences  in  Albany  and  New  York  convinced 
Mr.  Hawthorne  that  a  northern  climate  did  not  suit  him, 
and  he  decided  never  to  accept  another  charge  in  the 
North.  Simultaneously  calls  came  to  him  from  the 
Second  Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  and  the  First  Baptist 
Church,  Montgomery.  He  accepted  the  call  to  Mont- 
gomery. For  years  the  galleries  in  the  meeting-house 
had  been  of  no  use.  This  was  the  case  no  longer. 
Crowds  attended.  A  great  meeting  was  held,  some  two 
hundred  and  fifty  being  added  to  the  church.  The  pulpit 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church  became  a  mighty  power  in 
the  city  against  evil.  Mr.  Hawthorne  was  fearless  in  his 
attacks  on  the  saloon,  gambling,  and  other  forms  of  sin. 
He  was  now  in  the  very  zenith  of  his  power.  People 
came  from  distant  parts  of  the  State  to  hear  him.  His 
broadsides  against  sin  were  tremendous.  He  was  sub- 
jected to  adverse  criticism,  but  this  did  not  make  him 
change  his  methods.  The  reach  of  his  power  was  great; 


262         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

he  was  easily  the  first  citizen  of  the  State.  In  1879,  after 
four  years  in  Montgomery,  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
First  Baptist  Church  in  Richmond,  Va.  Dr.  J.  L.  M. 
Curry,  a  member  of  the  church  in  Richmond,  had  no 
small  influence  in  having  his  church  call  Mr.  Hawthorne. 
From  the  very  first  the  great  auditorium  of  the  First 
Church  was  scarcely  equal  to  the  crowds  that  gathered  to 
hear  him.  Chairs  had  to  be  used.  He  gathered  around 
him  here  a  body  of  young  men  who  proved  one  of  the 
church's  best  assets.  He  was  always  a  lover  and  admirer 
of  young  men.  He  was  almost  a  hero-worshiper  of 
young  men  of  promise  in  the  ministry.  During  his 
Richmond  pastorate  he  had  to  help  him  in  a  meeting 
Rev.  A.  C.  Dixon,  a  young  man  just  coming  into  notice. 
Some  doubted  the  wisdom  of  having  this  unknown  young 
man  for  so  important  a  work.  Mr.  Hawthorne  carried 
his  point,  and  the  result  proved  that  he  was  right;  the 
meeting  was  a  great  and  blessed  one.  One  of  the  con- 
verts was  a  Dutchman,  who  was  so  big  in  body  that  his 
baptism  was,  to  say  the  least,  not  a  success,  although  Mr. 
Hawthorne  was  famous  for  his  grace  and  dexterity  on 
such  occasions.  While  in  Richmond  he  was  most  active 
in  promoting  the  interests  of  Richmond  College  and  the 
Woman's  College.  So  great  was  his  influence  for  good 
in  Richmond  that  when  he  received,  in  1884,  a  call  to 
the  First  Church  in  Atlanta,  Dr.  Curry  said  if  he 
accepted  he  would  feel  inclined  to  call  him  an  insane  man. 
But  the  call  to  Atlanta  was  accepted. 

Dr.  Hawthorne  was  pastor  in  Atlanta  thirteen  years. 
Memorable  in  this  pastorate  was  the  temperance  agita- 
tion, in  which  Dr.  Hawthorne  bore  a  most  conspicuous 
part.  First  the  State  was  carried  for  temperance,  and 
then  came  the  campaign  for  Atlanta  and  its  county, 
Fulton.  Sam  Jones,  Henry  Grady,  and  J.  B.  Hawthorne 
were  the  three  great  figures  on  the  side  of  temperance  in 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE      Z63 

this  contest.  The  struggle  was  fearful.  The  liquor 
interests  brought  into  battle  their  greatest  power.  At  last 
the  day  of  election  came.  After  hours  at  the  polls  Dr. 
Hawthorne  went  to  his  home  worn  out.  Some  hours 
later  the  family  heard  the  approach  of  the  crowd.  The 
result  was  unknown,  and  Mrs.  Hawthorne  feared  that 
the  whiskey  people,  victorious,  were  coming  to  do 
violence  to  their  archenemy.  Not  so.  The  crowd  surged 
into  the  yard,  shouting  to  their  leader:  "It  is  all  right, 
Doctor,  we've  got  'em."  During  the  campaign  Judge 
Lockrane  was  so  convinced  of  the  sin  of  using  ardent 
spirits  as  a  beverage  that  he  decided  to  empty  all  the 
choice  wines  and  liquors  of  his  cellar  into  the  gutter.  He 
called  on  Dr.  Hawthorne  to  be  present  at  this  function; 
nor  would  he  allow  an  old  colored  mammy  to  catch  a 
little  of  the  old  liquor  to  keep  for  cases  of  sickness. 
While  in  Atlanta,  Dr.  Hawthorne  would  have  led  his 
people  in  the  erection  of  a  larger  and  more  commodious 
house  of  worship,  but  what  seems,  to  a  looker-on,  to  be 
the  merely  sentimental  associations  of  an  old  member, 
stood  in  the  way  of  this  forward  movement.  While  in 
Atlanta,  Dr.  Hawthorne  had  been  the  orator  at  the  semi- 
centennial of  Howard  College.  Upon  this  occasion  there 
was  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of  M.  A.  (It  will 
be  remembered  that  in  his  student  days  he  had  left  col- 
lege before  receiving  his  degree.)  Always  a  friend  of 
education,  while  in  Atlanta  Dr.  Hawthorne  led  in  the 
movement  that  resulted  in  the  establishment,  in  the 
suburbs  of  the  city,  of  a  great  school  for  women.  When 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  met  in  Birmingham, 
Ala.,  in  1891,  an  invitation  for  the  next  year  came  from 
Baltimore.  The  Baltimore  brethren,  believing  that  the 
time  had  arrived  to  do  away  with  the  "free-entertain- 
ment" plan,  had  the  courage  to  recommend  what  prom- 
ised to  be  an  unpopular  plan,  though  wise.  The  com- 


264         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

mittee  to  which  the  matter  was  referred  having  no  option 
in  the  matter,  since  there  was  no  other  invitation,  reported 
in  favor  of  going  to  Baltimore.  At  once  Dr.  Hawthorne 
was  on  his  feet  asking  the  Convention  to  come  to  Atlanta, 
"And,"  said  he,  "we  do  not  ask  you  to  bring  your  grub 
with  you."  The  Convention  went  to  Atlanta. 

A  call  to  the  First  Church,  Nashville,  came,  and  he 
accepted  it.  His  departure  from  Atlanta  was  an  ovation. 
Crowds  of  his  friends  thronged  to  the  station  to  say  fare- 
well, many  bearing  tokens  of  their  admiration  and  love. 
His  journey  to  Nashville  was  made  in  the  private  car  of 
Maj.  John  W.  Thomas,  of  Nashville.  As  had  been  the 
case  elsewhere,  so  it  was  in  Nashville — his  pulpit  was  his 
throne.  From  it  went  forth  powerful  denunciation  of 
sin.  Here  he  took  up  arms  against  the  American  Pro- 
tective Association,  which  he  thought  threatened  to 
violate  the  great  doctrine  of  religious  liberty.  It  need 
not  be  said  that  temperance  still  found  in  him  a  mighty 
friend.  While  in  Nashville  he  began  to  be  a  great 
sufferer  from  sciatica.  This  affliction,  while  it  inter- 
rupted his  ministry,  may  have  made  his  preaching  gain 
in  tenderness.  In  April,  1906,  he  resigned  to  accept  a 
less  strenuous  work  as  pastor  of  the  Grove  Avenue 
Church,  Richmond,  Va. 

Grove  Avenue  was  Dr.  Hawthorne's  last  charge. 
Conditions  at  this  church  were  not  ideal.  The  congrega- 
tion was  not  large,  and  other  difficulties  presented  them- 
selves. Yet  Dr.  Hawthorne  met  the  situation  with  the 
courage  of  a  young  man.  Suddenly  an  unexpected 
emergency  arose.  The  meeting-house  was  destroyed  by 
fire.  The  people,  led  by  their  dauntless  pastor,  soon 
erected  a  structure  more  beautiful  and  capacious  than  the 
first  house  had  been.  Increasing  ill  health  induced  Dr. 
Hawthorne  to  offer  his  resignation.  The  Southern  Bap- 
tist Convention,  at  its  meeting  in  Chattanooga,  upon 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE      265 

motion  of  Rev.  Dr.  G.  W.  Truett,  passed  a  resolution 
requesting  Dr.  Hawthorne  to  deliver,  the  next  year,  an 
address  "upon  such  subject  as  he  may  deem  best."  The 
following  year,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Convention  in  Rich- 
mond, Dr.  Hawthorne  delivered  the  address  that  had 
been  asked  of  him,  his  subject  being:  "Some  things  on 
which  it  behooves  Baptists  of  this  generation  to  put 
supreme  emphasis."  By  order  of  the  Convention  it  was 
printed  in  tract  form.  It  so  happened  that  during  this 
session  of  the  Convention  Dr.  Hawthorne's  seventieth 
birthday  came  around.  On  this  day  a  pleasant  surprise 
was  sprung  upon  him  at  the  breakfast  table  at  Ford's 
Hotel,  which  was  at  the  time  his  home.  Friends  who 
were  staying  at  this  hotel  gave  him  a  gold-headed  cane 
properly  inscribed,  the  presentation  speech  by  Dr.  H.  W. 
Battle  being  followed  by  a  poem  composed  and  read  by 
Dr.  D.  W.  Gwin.  After  closing  his  work  as  a  pastor 
Dr.  Hawthorne  made  several  lecture  tours  through  the 
South,  receiving  at  place  after  place  what  might  be  called 
ovations  at  the  hands  of  his  friends  and  admirers. 
Finally,  however,  after  a  sermon  at  Charlotte,  N.  C,  on 
October  17.  1909,  when,  in  a  high  degree,  his  "pristine 
power  seemed  to  return,"  his  strength  failed  so  rapidly 
that,  after  one  or  two  appointments,  other  engagements 
had  to  be  cancelled.  The  winter  of  1909-10  was  severe, 
and  for  several  months  he  scarcely  left  the  house.  In 
the  early  days  of  February,  with  milder  weather,  he  was 
again  seen  on  the  street.  On  the  14th,  however,  he 
suffered  a  slight  stroke  of  paralysis,  and  on  February 
24th  the  end  came.  In  Richmond,  where  he  had  been 
twice  pastor,  he  fell  on  sleep.  After  appropriate  services, 
very  simple,  according  to  his  request,  he  was  laid  to  rest 
in  beautiful  Hollywood  near  the  graves  of  his  friend. 
J.  L.  M.  Curry,  and  Jefferson  Davis. 


266         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Dr.  Hawthorne  will  be  remembered  as  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  orators  and  preachers  Southern  Baptists 
have  ever  had.  His  unusually  noble  presence  was  no 
unimportant  factor  in  his  power  before  an  audience.  As 
vStraight  as  an  Indian,  and  considerably  over  six  feet 
tall,  he  attracted  attention  in  any  crowd.  His  face  was 
placid  yet  strong,  and  his  head,  covered  with  long, 
abundant  hair,  had  the  pose  of  a  king.  Dr.  Hawthorne, 
from  the  very  beginning  of  his  career  as  a  public  speaker, 
always  carefully  prepared  his  speeches  and  sermons, 
which  were  committed  to  memory  word  for  word.  Then 
he  adopted  the  plan  of  reading  his  sermons.  This  he  did 
with  such  consummate  skill  that  many  who  heard  him  did 
not  know  that  he  had  his  manuscript  before  him.  He 
was  so  familiar  with  his  discourse  that  his  eye  was  not 
bound  to  the  manuscript,  but  was  free  to  direct  itself  to 
the  hearers.  When  he  turned  over  a  page  he  looked 
away  from  the  sermon,  and  so  many  never  saw  the  leaves 
as  they  were  turned.  Dr.  Hawthorne  seemed  to  honor 
and  magnify  every  word  he  spoke,  giving  full  time  for 
its  enunciation  and,  as  it  were,  for  its  reception.  Such 
deliberation  in  some  men  would  have  been  wearisome. 
Not  so  with  him.  His  enunciation  and  articulation  were 
so  perfect  that,  apart  from  the  meaning  of  the  words,  it 
was  pleasant  to  hear  them  as  they  followed  each  other. 
Phillips  Brooks  was  famous  for  the  rapidity  with  which 
he  spoke.  Dr.  Hawthorne  was  at  the  other  extreme. 
Upon  being  asked  once  if  he  did  not  find  the  work  of 
writing  out  his  sermons  very  heavy,  he  answered  that  his 
sermons,  when  written  out,  were  not  as  long  as  one 
would  suppose,  for  his  deliberation  in  delivery  made 
each  word  go,  as  it  were,  a  long  way.  Dr.  Hawthorne's 
delivery  dignified  his  message.  While  his  sermons  were 
not  lacking  in  thought,  had  they  been  delivered  by  one 
less  gifted  in  elocution  they  would  certainly  have  lost 


JAMES  BOARDMAN  HAWTHORNE      267 

much  of  their  power.  All  his  life  he  was  a  student  of 
words,  and  was  scrupulous  in  the  use  of  words  and  in 
the  construction  of  his  periods.  In  the  pulpit  Dr.  Haw- 
thorne was  so  the  impersonation  of  dignity,  so  kingly  in 
his  bearing,  that  to  many,  who  did  not  know  him  at 
nearer  range,  he  seemed  haughty,  austere,  even  unduly 
proud.  But  this  was  not  the  case.  Just  the  reverse  of 
this  was  true.  He  was  as  approachable,  as  guileless  as  a 
child.  He  was  companionable  and  genial  in  the  social 
circle,  and  was  especially  cordial  to  his  younger  brethren 
in  the  ministry.  Dr.  Hawthorne  was  most  careful  in  his 
preparation  for  the  pulpit  and  other  public  addresses,  and 
his  attention  to  his  dress  added  no  little  to  his  power. 
Much  more  might  be  said  about  one  who  was  an  orator 
of  high  order  and  a  noble  herald  of  the  glad  tidings  of 
salvation. 


THOMAS  D.  SCOTT 
1828-1910 

Meadows  of  Dan,  Patrick  County,  Virginia,  was  the 
center  of  the  arena  in  which  Thomas  D.  Scott  played  his 
part  in  life.  Near  this  place  he  was  born,  in  1828.  In 
1855  Rev.  D.  G.  Taylor,  laboring  as  a  missionary  of  the 
State  Mission  Board,  organized  the  Meadows  of  Dan 
Baptist  Church,  into  which  body  Mr.  Scott,  upon  a  pro- 
fession of  his  faith  and  after  his  baptism,  was  received. 
In  1861  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  and  later  set  apart, 
by  his  mother  church — Elders  Wm.  Hankins  and  W.  H. 
Beamer  constituting  the  presbytery — to  the  full  work  of 
the  gospel  ministry.  Although  never  pastor  of  any 
church,  he  was  assistant  pastor  for  the  Meadows  of  Dan 
and  Sycamore  Churches.  He  supplied  other  vacant  pul- 
pits; indeed,  this  seemed  to  be  his  chief  calling.  Thus 
he  rendered  efficient  and  acceptable  service.  Though  not 
a  preacher  of  great  talent  or  of  broad  culture,  he  served 
well  his  generation,  and  on  March  1,  1910,  in  his  eighty- 
second  year,  fell  on  sleep.  The  facts  for  this  sketch  were 
furnished  by  the  Rev.  J.  Lee  Taylor. 


268 


JAMES  ALEXANDER  MUNDY 
1836-1910 

This  faithful,  devoted,  consecrated  minister  of  God 
passed  away  on  the  evening  of  May  the  19th,  1910,  at 
the  home  of  Mrs.  John  C.  Mundy,  in  Amherst  County, 
Virginia.  He  had,  on  March  the  5th,  completed  his 
seventy- fourth  year.  In  that  county  and  at  that  home, 
near  Allen's  Creek,  where  he  passed  away,  he  was  born 
and  reared.  His  father,  Captain  Alexander  Mundy,  was 
a  successful  farmer  and  a  prominent  resident  of  his 
community.  He  was  no  less  prominent  as  a  Christian 
man  and  deacon  in  the  Mineral  Spring  Baptist  Church. 

James  was  reared  in  a  most  interesting  and  pious 
family.  We  are  not  surprised,  then,  that  in  early  life 
he  became  a  Christian  and  earnestly  sought  to  adorn  the 
doctrine  of  his  profession  and  faithfully  serve  Him 
whose  he  was.  He  joined  the  St.  Stephen's  Baptist 
Church  and  was  baptized  by  Rev.  T.  W.  Roberts,  a  mis- 
sionary under  the  State  Mission  Board. 

His  early  educational  advantages  were  good,  and  he 
made  the  best  of  them.  Having  finished  at  the  Academic 
School,  he  entered  Richmond  College,  and,  in  June,  1859, 
being  twenty-three  years  of  ag;e,  received  his  degree. 
During  that  summer  he  was  ordained,  to  the  full  work  of 
the  gospel  ministry,  at  Mineral  Spring  Church.  The 
presbytery  was  composed  of  Rev.  T.  N.  Johnson,  Rev. 
James  M.  Dillard,  and  Rev.  P.  S.  Henson,  the  latter 
preaching  his  ordination  sermon.  He  soon  entered  upon 
the  work  of  a  pastor,  and  was  very  successful  in  building 
up  the  churches  to  which  he  ministered.  For  ten  years 
he  was  pastor  of  country  churches  in  Xelson,  Amherst, 


270         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

and  Appomattox  Counties.  For  two  and  a  half  years  he 
was  the  Principal  of  Fluvanna  Female  Institute.  During 
his  administration  he  showed  decided  ability  in  the 
management  of  a  large  school  and  also  his  qualifications 
as  a  teacher.  The  school  prospered  under  his  administra- 
tion. 

In  1872  he  took  charge  of  the  church  in  Blacksburg 
and  at  Christiansburg  Depot,  in  Montgomery  County. 
Not  being  physically  strong,  he  could  not  stand  the 
severity  of  that  climate,  and  after  two  years  of  successful 
work  he  resigned  and  accepted  the  call  to  Enon  Church, 
near  Rollins  Institute.  While  pastor  there  he  preached 
at  Big  Lick,  now  Roanoke,  and  organized  there  the  First 
Baptist  Church.  After  a  delightful  pastorate  at  Enon  of 
three  years,  by  the  advice  of  a  physician,  who  saw  that 
the  climate  was  too  severe  for  him,  he  resigned,  to  the 
regret  of  the  entire  church.  He  then  accepted  a  call  to 
Warrenton,  N.  C.  In  this  warmer  climate  his  health 
improved.  In  his  pastorate  there  he  was  successful,  and 
he  served  the  church  for  seve.n  years.  While  pastor  there 
Wake  Forest  College  conferred  on  him  the  degree  of 
Doctor  of  Divinity.  Resigning  there,  he  accepted  the 
call  to  Greenville,  S.  C.  There  he  had  a  wider  field  of 
usefulness  opened  to  him.  Opportunities  for  good 
among  the  students  of  Furman  University  and  the 
Woman's  College,  as  well  as  the  outlook  for  good  in  the 
city,  were  not  to  be  disregarded.  For  ten  years  the  best 
service  of  his  ministerial  life  was  given  to  that  noble 
church  and  cultured  congregation.  Dr.  Charles  Manly, 
who  was  the  President  of  the  Furman  University,  says 
of  his  pastorate:  "How  wisely  and  affectionately  Dr. 
Mundy  labored  may  be  inferred  from  the  esteem  in 
which  he  was  universally  held,  and  from  the  fact  that  the 
church  so  prospered  as  to  send  out,  during  his  pastorate, 
two  colonies,  which  almost  immediately  became  vigorous 


JAMES  ALEXANDER  MUNDY  271 

churches,  and  are  now  among  the  most  important  in  the 
State."  His  labors  having  greatly  increased  during  these 
ten  years  of  service,  since  he  was  not  strong  physically  he 
resigned  and  accepted  a  call  to  Wilson,  N.  C.  He 
remained  there  two  years,  and  during  that  time  built  a 
neat,  comfortable  house  for  the  accommodation  of  the 
growing  church  and  increasing  Sunday  school.  From 
there  he  went  to  Reidsville,  N.  C.,  where  he  remained 
four  years,  and  during  that  time  had  good  success  in 
building  up  the  church.  He  then  accepted  a  call  to  Cabell 
Street  Church,  Lynchburg,  Va.  The  church  was  much 
split  up,  and  he,  by  his  prudence  and  forbearance,  suc- 
ceeded in  uniting  and  leading  it  to  great  efficiency.  His 
health  failing  him,  he  retired  from  the  pastorate  and 
went  to  the  old  home,  near  Allen's  Creek,  where  he  spent 
the  last  years  of  his  life  in  the  interesting  family  of  his 
widowed  sister-in-law,  Mrs.  John  C.  Mundy.  He  loved 
his  work,  and  loved  to  tell  the  story  of  Jesus  and  His 
love.  Though  he  had  retired  from  the  active  pastorate, 
yet  he  preached  for  the  churches  at  Gladstone  and 
Mineral  Spring  when  his  health  would  permit.  He  left 
his  impress  for  good  upon  all  the  churches  of  which  he 
was  pastor  and  upon  the  various  communities  in  which 
he  lived. 

I  )r.  Mundy  was  richly  endowed  with  a  fine  intellect, 
which  he  studiously  cultivated.  He  had  an  analytical 
mind,  and  became  one  of  our  most  logical  and  practical 
preachers.  His  sermons  were  made  very  forcible  by  apt 
illustrations  from  Scripture,  nature,  and  the  observations 
of  the  everyday  duties  of  life.  He  understood  human 
nature,  and  could  adapt  himself  to  any  occasion.  He 
was  generally  a  quiet  speaker,  but  when  inspired  by  his 
subject  he  would  rise  in  flights  of  oratory  and  eloquence, 
carrying  his  congregation  with  him  and  moving  them  to 
decisions  for  greater  usefulness  in  the  service  of  Christ. 


272         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

His  sermons  were  so  natural  and  logical  that  they  would 
convince  his  hearers  of  the  great  importance  of  right 
living  and  activity  for  Christ. 

He  was  a  genial  companion  and  a  good  conversation- 
alist. He  was  kind  and  liberal,  always  ready  to  do  his 
part.  In  social  life  he  was  attractive  and,  at  times, 
brilliant  in  conversation.  He  was  very  fond  of  young- 
people,  and  always  sought  to  encourage  them  to  some- 
thing noble  and  great. 

He  married  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Thomas  N.  Johnson, 
a  Baptist  minister  of  Buckingham  County,  Va.  His 
wife,  who  survives  him,  was  truly  a  minister's  helpmeet, 
and  his  home  was  always  pleasant  and  his  doors  were 
ever  opened  to  his  brethren  and  friends.  Over  fifty  years 
he  was  a  pastor.  How  wonderful  that  he  should  have 
accomplished  so  much  and  lived  so  long  when  he  was 
always  delicate!  That  prevented  him  from  taking  an 
active  part  in  our  Convention  and  Associational  meet- 
ings. He  could  not  stand  the  crowds.  He  must  have 
fresh  air  and  a  good  deal  of  it.  During  his  life  he  was 
always  bearing  testimony  to  the  love  of  God  and  the 
worth  of  religion,  and  needed  not  to  say  anything  when 
he  came  to  die.  In  his  last  days  he  would  frequently 
say:  "I  am  ready  whenever  the  Master  calls  me."  He 
died  of  heart  failure,  and  could  not  say  anything  when 
the  end  came.  In  the  midst  of  his  loved  ones  he  calmly 
and  peacefully  passed  away  from  his  work  on  earth  to 
his  home  in  heaven.  Loving  hands  and  sympathetic 
friends  laid  him  to  rest  in  the  beautiful  cemetery  in 
Lynchburg.  Rev.  Oscar  E.  Sams,  his  successor  in 
Lynchburg,  made  an  appropriate  address  and  closed  with 
the  benediction. 

W .  J.  Shipman. 


JOHN   KkA/lKK   LANCASTER 
1826-1910 

Bedford  and  Floyd  Counties  and  the  Blue  Ridge 
Association  formed  the  district  in  which  John  Frazier 
Lancaster  spent  his  life.  After  his  birth,  on  December 
15,  1826,  in  the  former  county,  his  father  moved,  with 
his  family,  to  Floyd.  The  members  of  this  family  were, 
for  a  time,  the  only  regular  or  missionary  Baptists  in 
the  county.  When  the  New  Haven  Church  was  organ- 
ized the  subject  of  this  sketch  and  others  of  his  family 
were  the  charter  members.  In  1858  he  represented  his 
church  in  the  organization  of  the  Blue  Ridge  Associa- 
tion; for  a  season  he  was  clerk  of  this  body.  In  1864, 
at  the  call  of  the  Mayo  Church,  he  was  ordained  to  the 
gospel  ministry,  and  was  pastor  of  Blackberry  and  per- 
haps other  churches.  He  was  not  only  an  earnest 
preacher  of  the  gospel  but  an  uncompromising  advocate 
of  "total  abstinence,"  and  Rev  J.  Lee  Taylor,  who  fur- 
nishes some  of  the  material  for  this  sketch,  well  says  that 
had  his  life  been  prolonged  he  would  have  rejoiced 
greatly  "in  the  blessing  which  came  to  his  beloved  State 
September  22,  1914,"  when  Virginia  decided  for  "State- 
Wide  Prohibition."  He  was  married  to  Annie,  the  oldest 
daughter  of  Rev.  D.  G.  Taylor.  Of  this  union  eight 
children  were  born,  of  whom  five,  namely:  Robert, 
Emma,  John  D.,  George  T.,  and  Lizzie,  are  still  living. 
This  couple  reared  an  interesting  family,  and  lived  to 
celebrate  their  "golden  wedding."  Since  Mr.  Lancaster 
was  a  man  of  good  education,  it  is  not  surprising  to  know 
that  much  of  his  early  life  was  given  to  teaching.  He 
passed  to  his  reward  March  1,  1910. 

273 


ROBERT  DANIEL  HAYMORE 
1840-1910 

Although  Robert  Daniel  Haymore  died  in  North 
Carolina,  and  although  some  years  of  his  ministry  were 
given  to  other  States,  he  was  a  Virginian,  and  a  con- 
siderable part  of  his  life  work  was  in  his  native  State. 
When,  on  June  6,  1910,  he  passed  away,  he  had  reached 
the  age  of  some  threescore  and  ten  years,  and  had  been 
a  preacher  about  half  a  century.  His  work  in  Virginia 
was  given  to  churches  in  the  Roanoke  and  Blue  Ridge 
Associations  and  to  the  church,  then  known  as  Goodson, 
in  Bristol.  A  part  of  his  time  in  Virginia  he  was  a 
missionary  of  the  State  Mission  Board,  and  one  year  the 
report  of  this  Board,  when  speaking  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
Association,  his  territory,  described  it,  saying:  "Nearly 
every  mile  of  which  is  missionary  ground."  In  the 
Roanoke  Association  he  was  pastor  of  Harmony  Church, 
and  in  the  Blue  Ridge,  first  and  last,  of  these  churches : 
Bethlehem,  True  Vine,  Starry  Creek,  New  Haven, 
Taylorsville,  Beulah,  and  Rocky  Mount.  After  his  pas- 
torate at  Bristol,  which  lasted  some  six  or  seven  years, 
he  accepted  a  call  to  the  Central  Church,  Chattanooga, 
Tenn.  Of  this  pastorate  Dr.  J.  J.  Taylor  says:  "The 
church  was  in  the  formative  period  of  its  history  and 
needed  the  guiding  hand  of  a  master.  Brother  Haymore 
was  just  the  man  for  the  hour.  By  his  serene  spirit,  his 
wise  oversight,  his  friendly  bearing,  he  brought  unifica- 
tion, hopefulness,  courage,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  prosperity  that  has  ensued."  After  some  six  or  seven 
years  in  Chattanooga  he  resigned  the  care  of  the  large 
city  church  and  returned  to  the  section  where  he  had  been 
brought  up,  and  took  charge  of  the  Mount  Airy  Church. 

274 


ROBERT  DANIEL  HAYMOKI  275 

Here  he  erected  a  beautiful  residence  and  bought  a  good 
farm  a  mile  out  of  the  town.  So,  with  his  church  and 
large  response  to  evangelistic  calls,  his  life  ran  to  its 
close.  At  the  close  of  one  year,  writing  to  the  Herald 
concerning  meetings  he  had  held,  he  said:  "More  than 
two  hundred  have  been  added  to  the  Baptist  churches, 
many  of  them  heads  of  families  and  persons  of  wealth 
and  influence.  Among  them,  two  young  men  have  been 
licensed  to  preach,  both  holding  college  diplomas.  We 
greatly  desired  a  greater  measure  of  visible  results,  but 
we  did  all  we  could." 

While  his  early  life  may  not  have  had  the  oppor- 
tunities for  the  largest  educational  preparation,  still  he 
was  in  no  mean  sense  an  educated  man.  "He  had  some 
knowledge  of  Greek,  and  his  library  was  rich  in  English 
classics,  with  which  he  had  an  extensive  acquaintance. 
In  his  public  ministrations  he  showed  a  comprehensive 
grasp  of  any  subject  he  undertook  to  discuss,  and  he 
never  lacked  in  appropriate  expression.  Indeed,  in 
stature,  voice,  grace  of  manner,  perspicuity  of  thought, 
and  facility  of  expression  he  impressed  himself  upon  his 
hearers  as  one  of  the  foremost  preachers  of  his  day." 
As  a  young  man  he  was  handsome,  being  "square  built, 
erect,  beardless,  swarthy,  keen  of  eye  and  alert  of  mind." 
In  these  early  days  he  met  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
young  women  of  his  section  of  country,  Miss  Charlotte 
A.  Reid,  and  she  became  his  wife.  Of  this  union  four 
sons  were  born,  namely:  Nathan,  Robert,  Jerman,  and 
Nicholas.  All  of  these  sons,  save  Robert,  are  still  living. 
She  was  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Robert  Reid,  a  distinguished 
physician,  though  she  had  been  adopted  by  her  childless 
uncle,  Major  Nathan  Reid,  whose  home  was  a  beautiful 
country  residence. 

In  evidence  of  the  fact  that  Mr.  Haymore  was  ever 
charitable  towards  the  faults  and  foibles  of  others, 


276         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Dr.  J.  J.  Taylor,  from  whom  the  larger  part  of  the 
material  for  this  sketch  has  been  secured,  tells  the  follow- 
ing incident:  "Some  years  ago,  when  Hugh  Smith  was 
pastor  in  Martinsville,  several  visiting  preachers  were 
guests  in  the  pastor's  home,  Haymore  among  them.  The 
tide  of  ministerial  fellowship  ran  high,  and,  incidentally, 
but  with  no  sort  of  malice  or  mischief,  the  odd  doings  of 
some  of  the  brethren  came  under  review.  Later  the  hour 
of  prayer  before  slumber  came  on,  and  Haymore,  as  the 
elder,  was  asked  to  lead  the  devotions.  Without  pre- 
meditation he  turned  to  the  seventh  chapter  of  Matthew, 
and,  with  that  modulation  and  emphasis  which  so  inter- 
prets the  printed  page,  he  began  reading:  'Judge  not 
that  ye  be  not  judged,  for  with  what  judgment  ye  judge 
ye  shall  be  judged,  and  with  what  measure  ye  mete  it 
shall  be  measured  unto  you  again.'  In  the  midst  of  the 
reading  he  paused,  and  in  one  of  those  explosions  of 
emotion  which  sometimes  seized  him,  he  said,  with  tears : 
'I  feel  rebuked!'  Though  if  there  were  sin,  he  was  the 
least  sinner  of  us  all.  In  even  a  tenderer  tone  he  finished 
the  lesson,  and  then  in  a  prayer  as  simple  as  a  child's  he 
led  us  into  the  secret  place  of  the  Most  High  and  laid 
our  faults  and  failures  and  sins  at  the  Master's  feet." 


MADISON  E.  PARRISH 
—1910 

Although  a  native  of  Virginia  and  a  son  of  Richmond 
College  (where  he  was  a  student,  1882-88,  and  where  he 
took  his  M.  A.  degree),  the  only  pastorate  Rev.  Madison 
E.  Parrish  ever  held  in  Virginia  was  the  brief  one  of  a 
year  and  eight  months  at  South  Street  Baptist  Church, 
Portsmouth.  This  was  the  close  of  his  earthly  service. 
After  a  severe  illness  with  pneumonia  he  passed  away  on 
June  11,  1910,  leaving  a  widow  and  a  son,  Madison  E. 
Parrish,  Jr.,  nine  years  old.  Upon  his  death,  a  citizen  of 
Portsmouth  said :  ''His  place  can  never  be  filled ;  all 
denominations  loved  him  alike."  Some  few  weeks 
before  his  death  he  was  assisted  in  a  protracted  meeting 
in  his  church  by  the  Rev.  Carter  Ashton  Jenkins,  now  of 
Richmond.  During  the  progress  of  the  meeting  Mr. 
Parrish  worked  day  and  night.  One  day  he  talked  from 
morning  till  night  with  twenty  unconverted  persons  in 
their  respective  places  of  business.  That  evening,  with 
tears  on  his  thin,  pale  face,  he  said  to  the  brother  who 
was  assisting  him :  "I  have  been  fighting  the  devil  to- 
day, but  we  will  get  one  soul  to-night."  He  was  right; 
that  night  one  man  was  converted,  and,  before  the  series 
of  meetings  ended,  more  than  fifty  persons  had  accepted 
Christ. 

Besides  the  Portsmouth  pastorate,  with  which  this 
life,  cut  off  in  its  prime,  ended,  Mr.  Parrish  had  served 
churches  at  Clovesport,  Ky.,  Johnston,  S.  C,  Salisbury 
and  Shelby,  N.  C.  From  this  last  town,  where  he  was 
pastor  in  1908,  the  town  from  which  Rev.  Dr.  A.  C. 
Dixon  and  his  two  brothers  came,  he  wrote  thus  to  the 

277 


278         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Religious  Herald:  "I  have  the  finest  corn,  tomatoes, 
potatoes,  beans,  fat  chickens,  all  fresh  and  homemade, 
and  I  am  feeding  the  flesh.  I  will  send  you  some  news 
matter  when  the  frost  comes."  Upon  this  letter  the 
editor  of  the  Herald  said,  among  other  things :  "Com- 
mend us  to  the  minister  who  has  a  fine  kitchen,  garden 
and  poultry  yard.  You  may  depend  that  he  has  a  whole- 
some personality,  likes  to  see  things  grow,  knows  himself 
what  a  hoe  handle  is  for,  has  no  dyspepsia,  and  does  not 
see  the  world  through  yellow  glasses."  In  these  words 
Rev.  Carter  Ashton  Jenkins  describes  Mr.  Parrish:  "If 
purity  of  life,  sweetness  of  disposition,  unprecedented 
humility,  profound  and  lucid  holdings  of  doctrine,  broad 
learning,  comprehensive  acquaintance  with  history, 
unusual  pulpit  magnetism,  together  with  refined  manners 
and  unwavering  faith  in  Jesus  Christ,  constitute  a  great 
man,  then  Madison  E.  Parrish  is  the  man  of  whom  you 
are  thinking." 


JACOB  SALLADE 

1871-1910 

Lives  of  ministers  are  not  without  mysterious  tragedy, 
and  still  the  promise  holds :  k<He  will  give  his  angels 
charge  over  thee  to  keep  thee  in  all  thy  ways."  The 
same  Herald  that  announced  the  name  of  Jacob  Sallade 
as  the  Chairman  of  the  Preaching  Bureau  Committee  for 
the  Baptist  World  Alliance,  in  Philadelphia,  gave  an 
account  of  his  sudden  death.  On  Monday,  July  11, 
1910,  as  he  was  hastening  to  take  a  train  at  Tioga  Sta- 
tion, Philadelphia,  he  stepped  in  front  of  a  southbound 
train,  was  hurled  in  front  of  another  train,  northbound, 
and  instantly  killed.  He  was  born  in  Williamsport,  Pa., 
September  19,  1871,  and  reared  in  Fredericksburg.  He 
attended  Bowling  Green  Academy,  and  then  was  at  Rich- 
mond College  the  sessions  of  1892,  1893,  and  1894  as  a 
ministerial  student.  On  January  9,  1896,  he  was  ordained 
at  the  Broadus  Memorial  Church,  Richmond,  of  which 
church  he  was  the  first  pastor,  having  been  elected  pastor 
October  28,  1895.  He  resigned  September  7,  1896.  Be- 
fore this  time  he  had  served  Mt.  Hermon  and  Providence 
Churches  in  the  Rappahannock  Association,  and  the  Con- 
cord Church  in  the  Dover.  While  a  student  at  Crozer  he 
was  pastor  at  Milton,  Pa.;  this  place  being  165  miles 
from  the  Seminary,  he  had  a  long  trip  every  Saturday 
and  Monday.  He  graduated  at  Crozer  in  the  Class  of 
1898.  While  in  Philadelphia  he  wrote  to  the  Herald: 
"The  Old  Dominion  may  forget  some  of  her  boys,  but 
it  is  hard  work  for  the  boys  to  forget  the  Old  Dominion." 
In  1901  he  became  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
New  Castle,  Pa.  He  left  this  field  to  become  assistant 

279 


28Q         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

pastor  of  Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell,  Grace  Baptist  Temple, 
Philadelphia.  From  the  Temple  he  went,  in  1905,  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  Tioga  Baptist  Church.  In  1908  he 
became  District  Secretary  of  the  Home  Mission  Society. 
In  May,  1910,  he  became  co-pastor  to  Dr.  Conwell,  the 
position  he  was  filling  at  the  time  of  his  death.  What  is 
well-known  to-day  in  church  circles  as  the  "Duplex 
Envelope"  is  the  result  of  much  study  and  work,  but  Mr. 
Sallade  was  the  first  "to  apply  the  idea  of  a  two-pocket 
envelope  to  church  collection  uses."  His  envelope,  which 
was  called  a  twin  envelope,  was  patented  August  27, 
1901,  it  being  No.  681,659.  His  envelope  in  a  modified 
form  was  again  patented  February  18,  1902,  the  number 
of  this  patent  being  693,624. 

His  funeral,  attended  by  three  thousand  friends, 
including  two  hundred  ministers,  was  held  in  the  Grace 
Baptist  Temple,  and  was  conducted  by  these  ministers : 
J.  M.  Wilbur,  Russell  H.  Conwell,  John  Gordon,  T.  H. 
Sprague,  and  J.  M.  T.  Childrey.  The  body  was  laid  to 
rest  at  Williamsport.  Rev.  Dr.  John  Love  contributed 
to  the  Baptist  Commonwealth  a  poem  in  honor  of  the 
memory  of  Dr.  Sallade,  entitled  "An  Appreciation."  In 
this  poem  this  stanza  occurred : 

"To  him  no  warning  came  until  the  hour 
That  marked  the  tyrant's  dread,  resistless  power ; 
One  moment  gazed  he  on  the  scenes  of  time, 
The  next  on  views  of  Paradise  sublime." 

In  1902  he  was  married  at  Milton,  Pa.,  to  Miss  Mabel 
Hatfield ;  she  and  their  daughter  Ruth  survived  him.  In 
1908  the  degree  of  D.  D.  was  given  him  by  the  Temple 
University. 


JOSEPH  LEONARD 

1855-1910 

Quite  regularly,  for  a  long  number  of  years,  the  name 
of  Joseph  Leonard  appears  in  the  list  of  Baptist  pastors, 
:iven  in  the  Minutes  of  the  General  Association  of 
Virginia,  and  much  less  regularly,  in  the  same  series  of 
Minutes,  is  his  name  found  as  one  of  the  pastors  of  the 
Lebanon  Association.  In  this  Association  he  was  pastor, 
first  and  last,  of  the  following  churches :  Walnut  Grove, 
Gum  Hill,  Willow  Branch,^  Lime  Hill,  Valley  View,  and 
North  Fork.  Several  of  these  churches  are  in  Washing- 
ton County,  Virginia,  the  county  in  which  he  was  born 
and  where  his  life  was  spent.  Because  the  sphere  of 
his  life  was  narrow  and  the  churches  to  which  he  min- 
istered were  small,  it  must  not  be  decided  that  his  service 
was  not  faithful  and  effective.  The  people  among  whom 
his  ministry  of  some  thirty-five  years  was  spent  had 
confidence  in  him,  hence  the  secret  of  the  success  that  fol- 
lowed his  labors.  Besides  his  work  as  a  pastor  he  was 
for  six  years  a  colporteur  and  for  twenty-six  years  a 
school-teacher.  The  span  of  his  life  was  from  1855  to 
July,  1910. 


281 


ROBERT  WILLIAMSON 
1828-1910 

At  the  sixty-seventh  session  of  the  Accomac  Associa- 
tion, held  in  1876  with  the  Lower  Northampton  Church, 
a  resolution  was  passed  appointing  Rev.  Robert  William- 
son and  Rev.  F.  R.  Boston  to  prepare  a  history  of  the 
Association  from  its  organization.  As  Mr.  Boston,  soon 
after  this  time,  left  the  Association,  the  work  fell  upon 
Mr.  Williamson.  In  1878  Mr.  Williamson's  "Brief 
History  of  the  Origin  and  Progress  of  the  Baptists  on  the 
Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia,  Embracing  an  Account  of  the 
Accomack  Association  and  Sketches  of  the  Churches" 
appeared,  being  a  pamphlet  of  one  hundred  pages  and 
selling  for  thirty  cents.  Of  the  Accomac  Association  he 
was  moderator  in  1874  and  in  1875,  and  in  1875  the 
preacher  of  .  the  introductory  sermon.  While  in  this 
Association  he  was  pastor  of  these  churches :  Lower 
Northampton,  Red  Bank,  Beulah,  Union,  and  Chinco- 
teague,  living  on  Chincoteague  Island.  Before  coming 
into  the  Accomac  he  had  his  home  within  the  bounds  of 
the  Rappahannock  Association,  and  after  leaving  the 
Accomac  he  returned  to  the  region  of  the  Rappahannock 
Association.  For  a  season  he  was  pastor  of  the  Farnham 
and  Jerusalem  Churches,  members  of  this  body.  For 
many  years,  however,  of  his  sojourn  at  Farnham  he  was 
not  a  pastor.  It  is  said  that  he  baptized  no  less  than  five 
hundred  persons  during  his  residence  in  the  Northern 
Neck.  His  preference  was  for  the  quiet  life  of  the 
teacher,  and  so  he  gave  much  of  his  attention  to  this  form 
of  service,  being  principal  of  several  academies  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  State.  In  his  obituary,  in  the  Minutes 

282 


ROBERT  WILLIAMSON  283 

of  the  General  Association  of  Virginia,  are  these  words 
concerning  him :  "His  life  was  that  of  an  earnest  servant 
of  God,  and,  dying,  he  left  no  stain  to  dim  the  precious- 
ness  of  his  ministry."  Princess  Anne  County  was  where, 
in  1828,  he  first  saw  the  light.  His  ordination  to  the 
gospel  ministry  took  place  at  Menokin  Church,  Richmond 
County,  in  1856;  he  was  one  of  the  seven  graduates  that 
Richmond  College  sent  forth  in  1854,  and  on  October  10, 
1910,  in  Richmond  County,  he  passed  to  his  eternal 
reward. 


CHARLES  EDWIN  STUART 

1872-1910 

As  the  delegates  were  on  their  way  to  the  General 
Association,  which  met  at  Roanoke,  November  18,  1910, 
they  heard  of  the  death  of  Charles  Edwin  Stuart,  which 
took  place  November  16th.  While  for  some  months 
before  his  death  he  had  not  been  well,  since  in  all  his 
ministry  he  had  been  so  strong,  and  since  he  was  in  the 
very  heyday  of  manhood,  it  seemed  hard  to  associate 
death  with  him.  Many  of  the  delegates  doubtless 
thought  of  another  meeting  of  the  Association  at  which 
Mr.  Stuart  had  spoken  with  a  fire  and  eloquence  that  had 
stirred  the  great  audience.  It  was  at  the  meeting  at 
Grace  Street  Church,  Richmond,  in  1901.  The  work  of 
State  Missions  was  under  discussion,  and  Mr.  Stuart  had 
as  his  subject  his  work  and  the  religious  condition  of 
things  in  the  Powell's  River  Association  and  in  all  that 
general  section  of  the  State.  At  this  period  he  lived  at 
Pennington  Gap,  and  besides  this  point  had  Deep  Springs, 
Jonesville,  Dryden,  and  some  other  places  as  his  preach- 
ing appointments.  In  these  years  he  seemed  to  be 
activity  personified,  as  if  his  motto  had  been : 

"We  are  not  here  to  play,  to  dream,  to  drift, 
We  have  hard  work  to  do  and  loads  to  lift. 
Shun  not  the  struggle;  face  it.  Tis  God's  gift." 

For  some  four  or  five  years  this  was  his  field,  a  part  of 
the  work  of  the  State  Mission  Board.  One  year  he 
reported  that  he  had  preached  247  sermons  and  baptized 
62  persons;  another  year  the  record  was  141  sermons 
and  52  baptisms.  On  April  30,  1905,  Mr.  Stuart 
preached  the  dedication  of  the  Corinth  Meeting-House 
and  raised  a  collection  of  $143.47,  and  doubtless  had 
large  share  in  the  effort  that  resulted  in  the  erection  of 
three  other  meeting-houses  about  the  same  time  in  the 

284 


CHARLES  EDWIN  STUART  285 

same  section.  Besides  his  regular  appointments  and 
much  work  in  protracted  meetings,  he  was  greatly  inter- 
ested in  education.  A  school  which  he  established, 
enrolled,  the  first  year,  325  pupils.  So  marked  was  his 
success  as  to  call  forth  from  the  Methodist  presiding 
elder  of  the  district  the  following  testimony:  "It  may 
not  have  come  to  notice  yet,  but  two  other  denominations 
are  working  this  territory  and  will  in  the  future  contest 
every  inch  of  it  with  the  Methodists.  Their  strength  and 
strenuous  efforts  make  them  a  force  that  we  do  not 
lightly  regard.  Who  shall  hold  this  territory  and  be  the 
instructors  and  guides  of  the  people?  The  danger  that 
threatens  Methodism  is  their  repose  in  conscious 
strength,  while  the  persons  referred  to  are  almost 
fanatically  loyal.  The  church  which  does  the  educational 
work  for  the  young  people  of  this  valley  will  be  the 
dominant  church  of  the  next  generation." 

Mr.  Stuart  was  born  in  Hanover  County,  July,  1872. 
His  educational  preparation  for  life  was  secured  in 
Pulaski,  Va.,  at  Richmond  College  (where  he  was  a  stu- 
dent, 1892-97,  and  where  he  took  his  B.  A.),  and  at 
Crozer  Theological  Seminary.  He  was  ordained  at 
Keysville,  August  22,  1895,  and  his  first  field  was  at 
Keysville  and  Chase  City,  with  Shiloh  as  one  of  his 
churches.  After  a  brief  season  on  this  field  he  became 
pastor  at  Ashland,  Va.,  and  from  there  he  went  next,  as 
pastor,  to  Wytheville,  preaching  also  for  Carmi  Church. 
From  the  work  at  Pennington  Gap,  to  which  place  he 
moved  upon  leaving  Wytheville — which  work  has  been 
described  above — he  came  to  Richmond,  and,  the  first 
Sunday  in  February,  1906,  took  charge  of  the  Venable 
Street  Church.  This  was  his  last  pastorate,  the  closing 
months  of  his  service  being  given  to  work  as  one  of  the 
representatives  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  of  Virginia. 
His  wife  (to  whom  he  was  married  August  7,  1906,  and 
who  was,  before  her  marriage,  Miss  Fannie  B.  Cox), 
survives  him,  with  one  son. 


THOMAS  P.  PEARSON 


No  information  concerning  the  life  of  Rev.  Thomas 
P.  Pearson,  beyond  that  given  in  the  obituary  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  General  Association,  has  been  secured. 
He  was  a  native  of  Franklin  County,  Virginia,  where  his 
life  was  spent.  He  was  a  constituent  member  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  Association.  He  was  ordained  at  Providence 
Church,  and  in  the  course  of  his  ministry  served  Mill 
Creek,  Trinity,  Shady  Grove,  and  Providence  Churches. 
His  was  an  unostentatious  life. 


286 


JAMES  FOLEY  KEMPER 
1846-1913 

Although  almost  all  of  his  work  as  a  minister  was 
given  to  Missouri,  still  Rev.  James  Foley  Kemper  was  a 
Virginian,  and  for  two  brief  seasons  a  pastor  in  his 
native  State.  Woodville,  Rappahannock  County,  was  his 
birthplace,  and,  after  so  many  years  spent  in  the  West, 
he  was  again  in  this  little  village  when  the  summons  came 
to  him  for  the  "long  journey."  His  life  reached  from 
May  20,  1846.  to  April  5,  1913.  His  parents  were 
Dr.  Charles  Rodham  Kemper  and  Mary  Virginia 
(Jones)  Kemper.  In  his  twenty-first  year,  on  November 
28,  1866,  he  was  married,  but  it  seems  that  at  this  time 
he  was  not  a  member  of  the  church ;  indeed,  his  baptism 
did  not  take  place  till  the  autumn  of  1870.  His  educa- 
tional outfit  for  life's  work  was  secured  at  the  Virginia 
Military  Institute,  Lexington,  Va.,  and  at  the  Southern 
Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  then  located  at  Greenville, 
S.  C.  Before  he  had  decided  to  become  a  minister  of  the 
gospel  he  practiced  law  for  some  months  at  the  Rappa- 
hannock County  Court,  and  before  he  became  a  regular 
pastor  he  was  a  supply,  first  for  Dr.  W.  R.  L.  Smith  at 
the  First  Baptist  Church,  Lynchburg,  and  then  in  Dan- 
ville. While  in  Lynchburg  he  attended,  May  29,  1879, 
at  Portsmouth,  the  General  Association  as  the  delegate 
of  the  First  Church.  As  a  missionary  of  the  State  Mis- 
sion Board  he  took  charge  of  the  church  in  Harrison- 
burg,  Va.,  in  1879,  remaining  there  some  two  years. 
About  1883  he  turned  his  face  towards  the  State  that 
was  to  be  his  home  and  his  field  of  labor  for  almost 
thirty  years.  While  in  Missouri  he  was  pastor  of  these 

287 


288         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

churches:  Glasgow,  Louisiana,  Maryville,  Marshall, 
Carthage,  Boonville.  His  longest  pastorate  seems  to 
have  been  at  Marshall,  where  he  labored  from  1893  to 
1902.  There  is  full  evidence  of  the  esteem  in  which  he 
was  held  by  Missouri  Baptists.  When  they  met  in  their 
annual  gathering  at  Lexington,  October  22,  1907,  he  was 
elected  moderator  of  the  body,  and  before  this,  more 
than  once,  he  had  been  elected  vice-moderator  of  this 
convention.  He  received  the  honorary  degree  of  Doctor 
of  Divinity  from  William  Jewell  College,  and  soon  after 
his  death  these  words  about  his  worth  and  work  appeared 
in  the  Word  and  Way:  "During  his  connection  with  the 
Baptist  work  in  this  State  no  [other]  minister  was  more 
generally  loved  and  revered.  ...  He  was  not  only 
an  able  preacher,  but  his  consecrated,  godly  life  was  an 
influence  for  good  wherever  he  was  known."  In  1908 
he  was  once  more  in  Virginia,  and  as  pastor  of  the 
Washington,  Piedmont,  and  Oakley  Churches,  in  the 
Shiloh  Association,  he  labored  for  a  few  years,  but  the 
"call  of  the  West"  must  have  been  in  his  heart,  for  in 
1910  he  was  once  again  in  charge  of  a  church  in 
Missouri.  Rev.  Dr.  E.  W.  Winfrey,  in  the  obituary  he 
prepared  of  Dr.  Kemper  for  the  Minutes  of  the  General 
Association,  says  that  "he  was  dignified,  but  gracious  and 
winsome  in  bearing  as  a  man,  forceful  and  fresh  as  a 
preacher,  and  his  patience  in  suffering  seemed  impres- 
sively Christian,"  and  that  he  was  "manly,  gentlemanly, 
amiable,  brave,  scholarly,  consecrated,  Christly."  His 
wife,  who  before  her  marriage  was  Miss  Laura  Frances 
Miller,  survives  him. 


C.  E.  WRENN 

1858-1914 

While  Virginia  was  his  birthplace,  C.  E.  Wrenn  died 
in  San  Antonio,  Texas,  May  22,  1914,  whither  he  had 
gone,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  in  search  of  health.  He 
was  born  in  Hanover  County  in  1858,  and  in  this  section 
of  the  State  his  last  work  was  done.  After  studying  in 
Richmond  he  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
Grace  Street  Baptist  Church  by  Rev.  Dr.  Wm.  E. 
Hatcher.  On  August  4,  1898,  he  was  married,  in  Cali- 
fornia, to  Miss  Alda  Gaines.  His  ordination  took  place 
in  Danville,  Va.,  November  5,  1906.  For  a  season  he  was 
pastor  at  Jessup,  Ga.  His  ministry  in  Virginia  was  first 
at  the  Schoolfield  Church,  Danville,  and  at  the  Elon 
(Goshen  Association)  and  Hopewell  (Dover  Associa- 
tion) Churches.  In  1909,  while  at  the  former  field,  he 
baptized  twenty-nine  persons  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
church,  and  the  following  year  sixty-three.  The  last 
months  of  his  service  were  marked  by  his  failing  health, 
yet  his  faithfulness  won  large  place  for  him  among  the 
people  whom  he  strove  to  serve  when  death  was  so  near 
at  hand. 


WILLIAM  HETH  WHITSITT 
1841-1911 

While  not  a  native  of  Virginia,  in  a  very  real  sense 
Dr.  Whitsitt  may  be  called  an  adopted  son  of  the  Old 
Dominion.  At  a  very  trying  hour  in  his  life  his  election 
to  the  Chair  of  Philosophy  in  Richmond  College  brought 
him  to  Richmond,  where  the  remainder  of  his  days  were 
spent,  and  in  Hollywood,  Virginia's  most  beautiful  "city 
of  the  dead,"  his  body  sleeps.  He  was  always  most  loyal 
to  his  native  State,  never  allowing  to  go  by  an  oppor- 
tunity to  praise  Tennessee.  He  was  born  near  Nashville 
at  the  home  of  his  father,  Reuben  Whitsitt,  a  prosperous 
farmer,  November  25,  1841.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he 
decided  to  give  his  life  to  the  gospel  ministry,  and  in 
1861,  after  three  years  as  a  student,  he  graduated  at  the 
Union  University,  then  located  at  Murfreesboro.  He  at 
once  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  Confederate  Army,  but 
was  soon  made  a  chaplain,  in  which  office  he  continued 
until  the  end  of  the  War.  He  was  under  General  Nathan 
B.  Forrest,  who,  in  his  official  reports,  more  than  once 
made  mention  of  the  young  chaplain's  courage  and 
gallantry.  In  1866  he  entered  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  next  year  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  Greenville,  S.  C.  After  two  years  there  he 
went  abroad  to  continue  his  studies  in  Leipsic  and  Berlin. 
It  was  not  common  in  those  days  for  young  Baptist  stu- 
dents from  the  South  to  study  in  Germany,  and  upon  his 
return  home  doubt  was  entertained  in  some  quarters  as 
to  his  orthodoxy.  Rev.  Dr.  J.  J.  Taylor  is  the  authority 
for  the  story  that  soon  after  his  arrival  in  this  country 
he  dispelled  all  uneasiness  as  to  his  devotion  to  the  faith 

290 


WILLIAM  HETH  WHITSITT  291 

"f  his  fathers  when,  upon  his  first  appearance  to  preach, 
he  gave  out  with  great  impressiveness  the  hymn : 

"Before  Jehovah's  awful  throne 

Yt-  nations  bow  with  sacred  joy; 
Know  that  the  Lord  is  God  alone, 
He  can  create  and  He  destroy." 

After  a  short  pastorate  at  Hill  Creek  Church.  Tenn.,  he 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Baptist  Church  of  Albany,  Ga.,  but 
he  remained  there  only  from  February  to  September, 
since  he  was  elected  to  the  Chair  of  Biblical  Introduction 
and  Church  History  in  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary.  This  was  in  1872,  and  his  connection  with 
the  Seminary  continued  till  1899.  For  no  small  part  of 
this  time  he  was  Professor  of  Polemics  and  Church 
History. 

In  the  Seminary  and  in  the  esteem  and  affections  of  the 
students  Dr.  Whitsitt  held  an  important  place  and  a 
place  all  his  own.  The  men  who  studied  under  him 
thoroughly  believed  in  his  piety,  his  sincerity,  and  his 
scholarship.  His  quaint  and  pithy  way  of  putting  things 
attracted  and  impressed  in  the  classroom,  causing  many 
of  his  sayings  to  be  quoted  in  and  beyond  the  Seminary. 
The  way  in  which  he  examined  details  and  showed  how- 
little  things  are  closely  related  to  great  issues  and  events 
was  a  lesson  of  untold  value  as  teaching  his  students 
right  historical  methods.  A  stranger  might  have  said  at 
first  blush  that  his  lectures  would  be  dry,  but  no  student 
at  all  inclined  to  listen  and  study  would  have  confirmed 
*uch  an  opinion.  While  his  manner  was  deliberate,  his 
Is  seemed  care- fully  chosen,  and  each  one  in  its  right 
place.  His  lectures  were  rich  in  epigrammatic  expres- 
xions,  incisive  criticism,  tender  pathos,  genuine  humor, 
and  rich  common  sense.  As  a  preacher  he  never  charmed 
the  popular  ear  as  did  Dr.  Broadus,  but  he  had  many 
admirers  and  manv  students  who  loved  to  hear  him  in  the 


292         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

pulpit  as  well  as  in  the  classroom.  Certainly  in  the 
Louisville  days  his  sermons  were  always  written  and 
closely  read,  and  the  penmanship  of  the  sermons,  as  well 
as  of  other  writings,  was  characteristic  and  unusual. 
The  writing  was  small,  yet  bold  and  clear,  the  sermons 
being  on  small  sheets  of  paper.  Dr.  Broadus  was  fond 
of  telling  a  joke  on  Dr.  Whitsitt,  of  how  he  ruined  the 
effect  of  a  strong  sermon,  preached  in  New  England,  by 
beginning,  soon  after  he  came  from  the  pulpit,  to  smoke 
a  cigar. 

The  heavy  burden  of  classroom  work  that  rested  on 
the  Seminary  professors  did  not  altogether  hinder  Dr. 
Whitsitt  from  literary  work,  for  which  he  had  so  many 
qualifications.  His  inaugural  address  as  professor  had 
been  on  the  theme:  "The  Relation  of  Baptists  to  Cul- 
ture," and,  as  the  years  passed,  he  published  first  a 
pamphlet  entitled  "History  of  the  Rise  of  Infant  Bap- 
tism," and  another  called  "History  of  Communion 
Among  Baptists."  Later  he  wrote  "Origin  of  the 
Disciples  of  Christ,"  "Life  and  Times  of  Judge  Caleb 
Wallace,"  "A  Question  of  Baptist  History,"  "Genealogy 
of  Jefferson  Davis,"  "The  Genealogy  of  Jefferson  Davis 
and  Samuel  Davies,  President  of  Princeton  College."  In 
1873  he  received  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from 
Mercer  University,  and  later  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Laws  was  conferred  upon  him  by  William  Jewell, 
Georgetown,  and  the  Southwestern  Baptist  Union  Uni- 
versity. In  1881  he  was  married  to  Miss  Florence 
Walker,  and  of  this  marriage  two  children  were  born,  a 
daughter,  who  is  now  Mrs.  H.  G.  Whitehead,  and  a  son, 
William  Baker  Whitsitt.  All  who  had  the  privilege  to 
come  into  the  circle  of  Dr.  Whitsitt's  home  were 
impressed  with  the  glow  of  love  and  happiness  that  dwelt 
there.  Dr.  Whitsitt  did  not  impress  one  as  being  physic- 
ally a  strong  man,  and  there  may  have  been  years  when 


WILLIAM  HETH  WHITSITT  293 

his  health  was  not  robust,  but  certainly  towards  the  end 
of  his  life  he  was  by  no  means  the  victim  of  dyspepsia, 
that  foe  of  men  given  to  sedentary  habits.  The  year  of 
the  Baptist  Congress  in  London  one  of  Dr.  Whitsitt's 
former  students,  who  was  a  passenger  with  him  on  the 
f'rinccss  Alice,  was  surprised  at  his  thorough  enjoyment 
of  the  decidedly  German  fare,  fare  which  the  student,  a 
very  much  younger  man,  found  too  rich  and  gross. 

Upon  the  death  of  Dr.  John  A.  Broadus,  in  1895, 
Dr.  Whitsitt  was  elected  to  succeed  him  as  president  of 
the  Seminary.  Soon  after  this,  certain  statements  that 
Dr.  Whitsitt  made,  in  articles  and  other  publications,  as 
to  Baptist  history,  started  a  controversy  that  lasted 
several  years,  that  was  most  bitter  and  unfortunate,  and 
that  finally  led  to  Dr.  Whitsitt's  resignation.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  historical  facts  which  aroused  the  dis- 
cussion, it  seemed  to  many  that  free  speech  and  full 
investigation  were  not  things  which  need  cause  Baptists, 
of  all  people,  any  alarm.  Many,  if  not  all,  of  the  Baptist 
newspapers  of  the  South  took  part  in  the  discussion,  and 
in  some  sections  District  Associations  became  arenas  of 
debate.  Other  denominations  were  attracted  by  what 
was  going  on  in  Baptist  ranks,  and  many  in  these  other 
communions  seemed  to  think  that  the  Baptists  were 
threatened  with  disaster  and  perhaps  dissolution.  When 
finally  the  matter  was  ended,  one  paper  said  that  Dr. 
\\liitsitt  went  "into  retirement  with  the  distinction  of 
having  been  more  abused,  more  persistently  misquoted, 
more  cruelly  dealt  with  by  a  large  number  of  his  brethren 
than  any  other  man  who  has  lived  among  us  for  a  cen- 
tury past."  Although  Dr.  Whitsitt  was  not  fitted  by 
taste  or  temperament  for  the  acrimonies  of  such  a  bitter 
fight,  nevertheless  he  calmly  and  with  determination 
stood  in  his  place.  The  Board  of  Trustees  of  the 
Seminary  supported  him,  at  two  annual  sessions,  failing 


294         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

to  take  any  steps  looking  towards  his  withdrawal  from 
the  presidency  and  from  the  Seminary.  At  the  meeting 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  at  Louisville,  in  1899,  at  the 
same  time  as  the  meeting  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention, Dr.  Whitsitt  offered  his  resignation.  It  is 
understood  that  the  Virginia  trustees  all  voted  against 
accepting  the  resignation,  but  many  who  were  warm  sup- 
porters of  Dr.  Whitsitt  voted  for  the  resignation  in  the 
interests  of  peace.  At  the  commencement  of  the  Semi- 
nary, a  few  weeks  later,  his  connection  with  the  institu- 
tion as  professor  and  president  closed.  Upon  this  occasion 
friends  presented  the  Seminary  with  a  portrait  of  Dr. 
Whitsitt;  he  made  his  final  address,  and  words  on  behalf 
of  the  trustees  were  spoken.  Dr.  Whitsitt  closed  his 
address  with  these  words :  "In  conclusion,  I  entreat  the 
favor  of  God  upon  our  school.  It  has  done  a  good  work 
hitherto.  The  past,  at  least,  is  secure.  May  the  future 
also  be  glorious.  May  good  learning,  enlightened  piety, 
and  real  Baptist  orthodoxy  always  prevail  in  our  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  And  now,  with  malice  towards  none, 
but  with  charity  for  all,  I  bid  you  an  affectionate  fare- 
well." Dr.  Hatcher,  speaking  on  behalf  of  the  trustees, 
addressed  Dr.  Whitsitt  with  affectionate  words,  closing 
his  remarks  thus :  "Doctor,  in  the  name  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees  and  of  the  students,  and  of  the  people,  I  give 
you  the  hand  of  true  fellowship  and  affection,  and  I  bid 
you  good-bye,  and  a  thousand  blessings  upon  you  and 
your  faithful  wife  and  your  noble  children,  through 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord."  When  the  portrait  had  been 
presented  by  Rev.  Dr.  Carter  Helm  Jones  and  accepted 
by  Dr.  Hatcher  on  behalf  of  the  trustees,  after  the 
applause  had  died  away,  as  Dr.  Whitsitt  arose  to  call  for 
the  benediction  he  received  an  ovation.  "Tears  of  affec- 
tion and  gratitude  dimmed  his  eyes,"  says  the  report  of 


WILLIAM  HETH  WHITSITT  295 

the  occasion  in  the  Courier-Journal,  "and  choked  his 
voice,  and  he  could  only  indicate  what  his  voice  could  not 
express." 

After  leaving  Louisville,  and  after  a  year  abroad,  Dr. 
Whitsitt  accepted  the  professorship  in  Richmond  and 
took  up  his  new  line  of  work,  which  he  kept  up  until  a 
few  months  before  his  death.  Upon  his  retirement  from 
his  work  at  Richmond  College  the  students  presented  him 
with  a  loving-cup,  and  that  year  dedicated  to  him  the 
college  annual.  While  he  had  been  feeble  for  some  time, 
his  death  was  not  expected,  but  on  Friday,  January  20, 
1911,  he  quietly  fell  on  sleep.  On  Sunday  afternoon 
friends  gathered  at  31 1  Park  Street  and  held  a  simple 
service.  The  Herald,  in  an  editorial  upon  his  death,  said : 
"With  the  spirit  of  self-effacement,  which  was  character- 
istic of  him,  he  quietly  gave  up  his  position  of  president 
of  our  Seminary  in  the  interest  of  peace,  and  later  on  we 
brought  him  to  Virginia.  We  are  glad  that  Virginians 
invited  him,  and  glad  that  he  came.  We  rejoice  that  in 
his  later  years  he  found  here  useful  and  congenial  occu- 
pation for  his  mind  and  heart,  and  surrounded  himself 
with  friends  whose  love  and  honor  he  prized  above  all 
earthly  possessions." 


JAMES  IRA  TAYLOR 
1831-1911 

About  1772  George  Taylor  and  his  wife,  who,  before 
her  marriage,  was  Miss  Elizabeth  Anyon,  set  out  from 
Wales  for  the  new  world  across  the  Atlantic.  They 
finally  settled  in  Henry  County,  Virginia.  In  this 
county,  in  1779,  the  husband  made  entry  of  a  tract  where 
he  lived,  died,  and  was  buried.  One  of  his  ten  children 
was  Reuben  Taylor.  Reuben  Taylor  and  his  wife,  Nancy 
Gray,  reared  a  large  family.  One  of  their  sons,  James 
Ira  Taylor,  was  born,  April  13,  1831,  in  the  Mayo 
neighborhood,  in  the  southern  part  of  Henry  County. 
His  education,  which  was  limited,  was  secured  mainly 
in  the  common  schools,  though  he  studied  for  a  season 
at  the  Patrick  Henry  Academy  at  Penn's  Store.  His 
conversion,  which  took  place  on  his  father's  farm,  was 
deep  and  sound.  "He  believed  with  all  his  heart  that 
only  a  profound  conviction  of  sin  can  lead  to  true  repent- 
ance and  to  faith  in  the  Lord  Jesus."  Soon  after  his 
conversion  he  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  and 
he  found  great  satisfaction  in  warning  people  "against 
the  perils  of  the  movement  of  Alexander  Campbell"  and 
in  preaching  salvation  by  grace.  The  two  preacher 
brothers,  James  Ira  and  Daniel  Gray,  sought  to  be  in 
some  pulpit  every  Sunday,  unless  detained  by  other  calls 
of  Providence.  While  Sycamore  Church,  Patrick 
County,  Blue  Ridge  Association,  was  the  only  pastorate 
James  Ira  Taylor  ever  held  in  Virginia,  he  was  highly 
successful  as  the  teacher  of  a  Bible  Class  at  Mayo 
Church.  He  had  much  to  do  in  shaping  the  theology  of 
the  fourteen  preachers  whom  Mayo  Church  sent  out  into 

296 


JAMES  IRA  TAYLOR  297 

the  world.  Some  of  these  men  hold  high  places  to-day, 
and  they  can  testify  that  the  Theological  Seminary  did 
not  have  to  revise  the  theology  they  had  learned  in  the 
Mayo  Bible  Class  under  Mr.  Taylor. 

After  many  years  at  Sycamore,  in  1874,  Mr.  Taylor 
migrated  to  Oregon.  While  for  a  season  pastor  of  a 
country  church  in  Benson  County,  in  the  State  of  his 
adoption,  the  larger  part  of  his  time  was  given  to  young 
pioneer  churches  that  were  unable  to  offer  him  financial 
support.  He  spent  much  time  in  the  study  of  the  Bible, 
and  was  in  the  habit  of  reading  the  good  book  in  the 
family;  "evening  prayer  was  part  of  the  daily  pro- 
gramme, and  was  always  a  season  of  religious  uplift  and 
refreshing."  In  Oregon,  thirty  years  ago,  preaching  was 
in  many  places  infrequent  and  infidelity  rampant.  Men 
who  came  into  Mr.  Taylor's  home  for  a  formal  visit  of 
an  hour  were  often  led  by  him,  in  a  tactful  way,  into 
religious  conversation  and  kept  for  the  larger  part  of  the 
day. 

Miss  Ruth  Pratt,  of  the  Mayo  neighborhood,  who,  in 
January,  1857,  became  Mr.  Taylor's  wife,  and  who  was 
"all  the  world  to  him,"  survived  him.  They  were  the 
parents  of  a  large  family ;  four  sons  and  four  daughters 
are  still  living:  they  are  Rev.  Dr.  William  Carson  Tay- 
lor, Reuben  Taylor,  Mrs.  E.  H.  Hawkins,  Mrs.  J.  T. 
Vincent,  Frank  Taylor,  Jesse  G.  Taylor,  Mrs.  J.  L.  Tait, 
and  Mrs.  Caleb  Davis.  Mr.  Taylor  lived  to  see  all  his 
children  happily  married  and  all  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 
He  died  on  Monday.  March  27.  1911,  at  4:30  P.  M.,  at 
Corvallis,  Oregon. 


JOHN  W.  MARTIN 
1848-1911 

A  native  of  Appomattox  County,  John  W.  Martin 
spent  his  life  in  this  and  the  adjoining  counties  of 
Nelson,  Campbell,  and  Amherst.  One  of  five  sons  of 
Valentine  and  Elizabeth  Plunkett  Martin,  he  was  born 
June  28,  1848.  When  quite  a  young  man  he  went,  with 
his  brother,  to  Lynchburg,  and  engaged  in  the  hardware 
business.  He  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  by  Rev.  Dr.  C.  C.  Bitting.  He 
became  active  and  interested  in  Sunday-school  work ;  out 
of  this  effort,  in  which  young  Martin  bore  a  part,  the 
Sunday  school  was  organized  that  later  grew  into  the 
College  Hill  Baptist  Church.  When  he  felt  clearly  that 
he  was  called  to  the  gospel  ministry  he  at  once  decided 
to  go  to  Richmond  College  to  prepare  himself  for  what 
he  had  determined  to  make  his  life  work.  At  the  college 
he  was  older  than  many  of  the  students,  and  his  portly 
form  helped  to  give  him  the  air  of  a  man  rather  than  a 
stripling,  but  his  energy  and  jovial  spirit  made  him  com- 
panionable and  popular  with  his  fellow-students.  On 
December  18,  1879,  he  was  married,  at  Gidsville,  Va., 
by  the  Rev.  Samuel  Massie,  to  Miss  Jennie  Gannaway. 
the  daughter  of  James  M.  and  Sarah  Gannaway,  and  on 
July  31,  1882,  was  ordained  at  Ebenezer  Church, 
Amherst  County.  His  first  pastorate  was  with  this 
church.  Before  his  ministry,  of  thirty-odd  years,  came 
to  a  close,  he  had  been  pastor,  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods,  of  these  churches :  Ebenezer,  Jonesboro,  St. 
Stephen's,  Walnut  Grove,  Adiel,  Kingswood,  Mineral 
Spring,  Central,  Ariel,  Piney  River,  Oak  Hill,  Clifford. 

298 


JOHN  W.  MARTIN  299 

His  work  was  in  the  bounds  of  the  Albemarle  Associa- 
tion until  1903,  when  the  Piedmont  Association  was 
organized,  after  which  time  his  labors  were  in  the  latter 
Association.  Of  this  body  he  was  clerk  from  its  organi- 
zation until  his  death.  He  was  a  man  of  tireless  energy, 
and  for  a  part  of  his  life  managed  to  carry  on  a  store 
and  teach  school,  all  in  addition  to  his  work  for  his 
churches.  At  times  he  was  the  pastor  of  five  churches. 
Of  Mr.  Martin,  Rev.  W.  F.  Fisher  said,  in  the  Herald, 
soon  after  his  death:  "He  was  a  fine  organizer;  he 
possessed  the  remarkable  ability  to  get  other  people  inter- 
ested in  the  work.  .  .  .  Genial,  cordial,  sympathetic, 
companionable,  he  won  the  people,  young  and  old.  He 
untiring  in  his  efforts.  .  .  .  His  people  all 
loved  him."  To  the  end,  even  after  his  strength  began 
to  fail,  he  kept  at  his  work.  His  last  sermon  was 
preached  the  second  Sunday  in  June  at  Clifford,  where 
he  was  seeking  to  complete  a  house  of  worship.  The 
Sunday  before  his  death  he  made  an  earnest  address 
before  the  Woman's  Missionary  Society  at  Central 
Church.  He  died  Thursday,  June  22,  1911,  on  the  birth- 
day of  his  wife.  The  funeral,  which  took  place  at  his 
home,  was  conducted  by  Rev.  W.  R.  McMillan  and  Rev. 
S.  P.  Massie.  The  Mt.  Pleasant  and  Lowesville  Lodges 
of  Masons  were  represented  at  the  funeral.  He  was  sur- 
vived by  his  wife  and  these  five  children :  Carroll  Martin, 
Sampson  Martin,  Maitland  Martin,  Mrs.  R.  C.  Taylor, 
Mrs.  Frank  Scott. 


JAMES  BARNETT  TAYLOR,  JR. 
1837-1911 

In  Hollywood,  Richmond's  "city  of  the  dead,"  in  the 
same  lot,  are  the  graves  of  James  Barnett  Taylor,  Sr., 
and  his  son,  James  Barnett  Taylor,  Jr.  In  the  city  where 
the  father  was  pastor  of  the  Second  and  Grace  Street 
Baptist  Churches  and  Secretary  of  the  Foreign  Mission 
Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  this  son  was 
born,  October  22,  1837.  The  home  in  which  he  grew  up 
was  remarkable  for  its  piety,  its  "plain  living,  and  high 
thinking."  The  children  were  as  familiar  with  books  as 
a  stableboy  is  with  horses.  The  mother  in  the  home,  of 
New  England  ancestry,  had  in  her  make-up  energy, 
thrift,  shrewd  common  sense,  and  a  decided  religious 
turn  of  mind.  The  father  was  a  remarkable  pastor,  an 
excellent  preacher,  and  had  great  gifts  of  leadership  and 
capacity  for  administration.  It  is  no  wonder  that  this 
boy  in  this  home  should  be  a  clerk  for  a  season  in  a 
bookstore  if  he  was  to  be  clerk  at  all,  or  that  at  the  age 
of  fifteen  he  became  a  member  of  the  church,  being  bap- 
tized December  19,  1852,  by  Dr.  Jeter,  and  that  his  after- 
life gave  full  evidence  of  the  genuineness  of  his  early 
conversion. 

His  education,  which  had  already  been  started  in  the 
home,  was  continued,  first  at  Richmond  College  (1852- 
53,  1853-54,  1855-56),  then  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, and  then  at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  Greenville,  S.  C.  While  a  student  at  Rich- 
mond College  he  carried  on,  with  Rev.  Wm.  E.  Hatcher, 
his  fellow-student,  a  protracted  meeting  at  Grace  Street 
Baptist  Church  which  was  marked  by  deep  spiritual 

300 


JAMES  BARNETT  TAYLOR,  JR.          301 

power  and  which  resulted  in  a  large  number  of  conver- 
sions. This  episode  was  prophetical  of  his  future  career ; 
in  after  years  he  was  quite  successful  in  evangelical  work  ; 
indeed,  all  of  his  preaching  had  the  evangelistic  note.  At 
the  University  of  Virginia  he  was  one  of  that  little  group 
of  students  who  organized  the  first  college  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in 
the  world,  and  he  was  one  of  the  "managers"  of  the  new 
organization. 

On  June  10,  1860,  an  interesting  service  was  held  at 
Charlottesville,  Va.  Several  young  men  were  set  aside 
at  this  time  for  the  gospel  ministry.  The  presbytery  was 
composed  of  the  following  ministers:  James  B.  Taylor, 
Sr.,  James  Fife,  A.  M.  Poindexter,  Tiberius  Gracchus 
Jones,  A.  B.  Cabaniss,  John  A.  Broadus,  A.  B.  Brown, 
Charles  Quarles,  and  W.  P.  Parish.  The  young  men 
who  had  been  examined  the  day  before,  and  who  were 
ordained,  were  Crawford  H.  Toy,  John  L.  Johnson,  and 
James  B.  Taylor,  Jr.,  of  the  Charlottesville,  and  John 
Wm.  Jones,  of  the  Mechanicsville  Church.  The  sermon 
was  preached  by  Dr.  T.  G.  Jones,  on  the  text  " Preach  the 
word."  The  ordaining  prayer  was  made  by  Dr.  Taylor, 
and  then  the  charge  was  delivered  by  Dr.  Broadus.  By 
this  time  the  crowd,  already  large,  was  so  increased  by 
people  from  other  congregations  in  the  town,  whose 
services  were  over,  that  the  standing  throng  around  the 
doors  pressed  far  down  the  aisles,  "preserving,  however, 
a  breathless  silence."  The  purpose  of  these  young  men 
to  go  to  China  and  Japan  was  interfered  with  by  the 
coming  on  of  the  War.  The  same  awful  event  inter- 
rupted Mr.  Taylor's  course  at  the  Seminary  at  Greenville. 
He  at  once  enlisted,  and,  as  a  member  of  Brook's  Troop. 
Hampton's  Legion,  was  present  at  the  first  battle  of 
Manassas.  Later  he  was  transferred  to  Gen.  W.  H.  F. 
Lee's  command  in  the  10th  Virginia  Cavalry.  As  a 
chaplain,  and  as  an  agent  seeking  funds  with  which  to 


302         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

secure  Bibles  for  the  Confederate  soldiers,  he  was  very 
useful.  He  also  compiled  a  hymn-book,  which  was 
extensively  used  in  camp  and  other  religious  services. 

After  the  War  he  became  pastor  at  Culpeper  Court 
House,  Va.  During  a  pastorate  of  ten  years  at  this 
place  he  built  up  a  strong  church,  beginning  with  a  mem- 
bership of  only  28.  Before  he  left  there  were  320 
additions  to  the  church,  and,  besides,  he  had  500  con- 
versions in  the  protracted  meetings  he  held  in  the  sur- 
rounding country.  Once  at  the  Louisville  Seminary, 
Dr.  Broadus,  addressing  his  class,  used  James  B.  Taylor, 
Jr.,  and  his  work  at  Culpeper,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
blessing  a  wise  and  consecrated  and  tactful  preacher 
could  be  in  a  town  and  in  a  whole  Association.  From 
Culpeper  he  went,  in  October,  1875,  to  Wilmington, 
N.  C,  to  become  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  of 
that  city.  Here  he  remained  some  years,  wiping  out  a 
debt  on  the  meeting-house  and  greatly  strengthening  the 
church.  After  a  serious  illness  he  resigned  and  spent 
some  months  in  European  travel. 

Upon  his  return  from  Europe  he  accepted  a  call  to  the 
Baptist  Church  at  Lexington,  Va.  While  the  Baptists 
are  not  strong  in  Lexington,  the  fact  that  the  Virginia 
Military  Institute  and  Washington  and  Lee  University 
are  located  in  this  town  adds  importance  to  this  pastorate. 
Besides  a  faithful  ministry  to  his  own  flock,  Dr.  Taylor 
won  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  faculties  of  the  two 
institutions  of  learning  and  of  the  community,  and  did 
good  work  among  the  students.  The  location  of  the 
Baptist  meeting-house  is  not  a  commanding  one,  but  dur- 
ing his  pastorate  the  building  was  enlarged  and  so 
improved  as  to  be  much  more  attractive.  During  his 
pastorate  here  Dr.  Taylor  was  called,  upon  the  death  of 
Rev.  Dr.  John  P.  Strider,  Professor  of  Moral  Philoso- 
phy and  Belles-Lettres,  to  fill,  for  a  season,  the  Chair  of 


JAMES  BARNETT  TAYLOR,  JR.          303 

Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University ;  this  work  he  did  in 
a  highly  acceptable  manner  to  the  students  and  faculty. 
During  a  part  of  his  residence  in  Lexington  he  lived  in 
what  is  known  as  the  "Jackson  House,"  it  having  been, 
for  a  time,  the  home  of  "Stonewall"  Jackson.  In  June, 
1895,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church,  Salem, 
Va.  This  was  at  the  time  when  the  land  boom,  which 
had  swept  over  Virginia,  was  leaving  financial  depression 
and  disaster  in  its  wake.  Salem  did  not  escape  the 
"fever"  and  then  the  reaction.  During  the  five  years  of 
Dr.  Taylor's  work  in  this  beautiful  and  peaceful  town, 
he  was  closely  associated  with  the  beginning  of  the  Bap- 
tist Orphanage,  which,  declining  many  other  offers,  came 
to  this  town.  For  some  time  he  was  the  field  representa- 
tive of  the  Orphanage,  in  which  capacity  he  brought  the 
institution  and  its  important  work  to  the  hearts  and 
sympathy  of  hundreds  of  homes  and  churches,  raising  a 
goodly  sum  of  money.  When  he  left  Salem  it  was  to 
become  the  representative,  in  the  field,  of  the  Georgia 
Baptist  Orphanage,  with  his  residence  in  Atlanta.  In 
this  position,  the  last  regular  work  of  his  life,  he  was 
eminently  successful,  receiving,  with  his  family,  a  warm 
place  in  the  affections  of  Georgia  and  Atlanta  Baptists. 
While  he  was  for  a  time  supply  pastor  at  Freemason 
Street,  Norfolk,  and  also  at  Suffolk,  during  the  years 
that  remained,  Richmond,  the  home  of  his  boyhood  days, 
was  his  residence.  As  long  as  he  was  able  he  preached 
as  an  occasional  supply  fnr  churches  in  and  near  Rich- 
mond. After  several  years  of  increasing  feebleness, 
during  which  time  his  cheerfulness  and  courage  kept  at 
high  tide,  on  Thursday  morning,  June  29,  1911,  in  Bar- 
ton Heights,  a  suburb  of  Richmond,  the  end  came.  The 
funeral,  which  took  place  in  Grove  Avenue  Church,  was 
conducted  by  Rev.  Dr.  \V.  C.  James,  the  pastor,  assisted 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  H.  R viand.  Rev.  Dr.  R.  J.  Willing- 


304         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ham,  and  Rev.  Dr.  R.  H.  Pitt.  The  burial  was  in 
Hollywood,  and  Rev.  Dr.  W.  E.  Hatcher,  coming  from 
his  summer  home  at  Fork  Union,  reached  the  grave  in 
time  to  offer  the  prayer.  His  wife  and  five  children  sur- 
vive him.  He  was  twice  married;  his  first  wife,  who 
died  in  Culpeper,  was  Miss  Fannie  R.  Poindexter  (the 
daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  A.  M.  Poindexter),  a  woman 
remarkably  lovely  in  person  and  character.  His  second 
wife  was  Miss  Fannie  E.  Callendine,  of  Morgantown, 
W.  Va..  a  most  gracious  and  charming  Christian  woman. 
To  within  a  few  years  of  the  end  of  his  life  Dr.  Taylor 
had  the  blessing  of  vigorous  physical  health ;  his  com- 
plexion was  florid,  his  figure  inclining  towards  corpu- 
lence, yet  withal  he  was  alert  in  his  movements.  He 
loved  work,  and  was  ever  busy.  While  fond  of  books, 
he  loved  human  fellowship  and  the  companionship  of 
friends,  his  loved  ones,  and  his  brethren.  For  all  the 
work  and  trials  through  which  he  passed  he  was  blessed 
with  a  saving  sense  of  humor.  One  of  the  biographers 
of  Milton  says  that  he  was  lacking  in  humor;  this  is 
the  more  remarkable  as  it  is  usually  one  of  the  factors  in 
the  make-up  of  great  men.  How  much  strain  and  stress 
the  great  poet  would  have  been  saved,  living,  as  he  did, 
in  trying  days,  if  he  had  had  the  sense  of  humor !  Many 
illustrations  might  be  given  of  Dr.  Taylor's  humor  and. 
of  his  enjoyment  of  a  joke  or  good  story.  He  had,  to  a 
considerable  degree,  the  power  of  mimicry  and  the 
instinct  of  an  actor,  which  gifts  often  gave  his  loved 
ones  half -hours  of  real  relaxation  and  innocent  amuse- 
ment. He  was  genial  and  companionable,  knowing  how 
to  see  the  best  in  people  and  how  to  make  that  which 
was  good  in  them  better.  He  was  fond  of  singing,  and 
often  in  the  morning  his  voice  rang  out  in  some  hymn 
of  devotion  and  praise.  When  he  led  family  worship  in 
his  own  home  or  elsewhere  he  was  apt  to  start  a  hymn 


JAMES  BARNETT  TAYLOR,  JR.          305 

which  was  so  familiar  that  all  could  share  in  its  strains. 
He  was  widely  read  in  a  kind  of  religious  literature  that 
does  not  seem  to  have  much  popularity  to-day — the  books 
of  devotion  and  biography  that  were  highly  esteemed 
some  generations  ago.  And  books  that  he  had  read 
seemed  ever  ready  to  his  hand  for  use.  He  had  quite  a 
collection  of  newspaper  clippings  which  gave  interesting 
facts  about  men  and  manners  of  other  days.  He  had  the 
historian's  instinct.  As  a  preacher  he  was  earnest,  direct, 
appealing  to  the  conscience.  His  hearers,  whether  they 
were  learned  or  ignorant,  were  apt  to  go  away  from  the 
church  wanting  and  planning  to  lead  better  lives.  His 
sermons  were  usually  short,  and  he  was  happy  in  his  use 
of  illustrations.  Doubtless  he  inherited  some  of  his 
father's  gifts  as  a  pastor;  certainly  the  people  of  his 
several  churches  loved  him  tenderly  and  felt,  for  years 
after  his  service  with  them  ended,  the  uplift  of  his  cheer- 
ful spirit  and  genuine  piety.  As  a  Baptist  he  had  clear 
convictions,  but  was  at  the  same  time  ready  to  find  in 
other  denominations  his  brethren  in  Christ  and  a  high 
degree  of  devotion  and  consecration.  He  loved  the 
meetings  of  the  denomination,  and  was  often  seen  and 
heard  in  the  district  and  State  gatherings,  nor  did  he 
neglect  the  sessions  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention. 
His  contributions  to  the  Religions  Herald  and  other  such 
papers  were  usually  brief  comments  on  men  or  questions 
of  the  day  or  excerpta  from  his  scrapbook  or  from  books 
that  he  had  read  and  read  again.  From  the  movement 
of  an  active  life  he  passed  into  the  years  of  his  physical 
decline,  preserving  his  sunny  spirit,  his  faith  in  God,  and 
his  interest  in  his  fellow-men.  Of  him  it  was  true  that 
at  eventime  it  was  light.  His  children  who  survive  him 
are  Dr.  Boyce  Taylor,  Dr.  H.  M.  Taylor,  Mrs.  W.  R. 
Whitman,  and  Mrs.  W.  J.  Armstrong. 


GEORGE  HOLMAN  SNEAD 
1833-1911 

In  the  Virginia  Baptist  ministry  there  have  been  not 
a  few  men  of  ability  who  left  the  medical  profession  to 
become  preachers  of  the  gospel.  The  story  that  follows 
is  the  story  of  one  who  for  many  years  accomplished 
successfully  the  work  of  physician  and  preacher.  The 
community  and  church  where  this  career  was  run  are 
remarkable.  Fluvanna  County,  while  not  one  of  the 
richest  agricultural  sections  of  Virginia,  abounds  in 
homes  where  people  live  in  comfort  and  love  to  entertain 
their  friends.  In  this  county  "The  Fork"  neighborhood, 
which  takes  its  name  from  the  Fork  Union  Church,  has 
enjoyed,  in  a  high  degree,  this  fame  for  hospitality,  and 
has  been  known  as  the  home  of  an  excellent  and  very 
large  family,  the  Sneads.  The  chief  church  of  this  com- 
munity, Fork  Union,  as  the  name  suggests,  was  origi- 
nally the  meeting-place  of  various  denominations.  The 
meeting-house,  and  one  of  these  denominations,  the  Bap- 
tists, have  grown,  through  the  years,  until  now  every 
Sunday,  and  not  just  once  a  month,  as  was  the  early 
fashion,  this  people  meet  in  this  church  for  worship. 
The  community  is  very  largely  a  Baptist  community. 
The  enlargement  and  improvement  of  the  meeting-house, 
having  been  paid  for  by  this  denomination,  nothing  but 
a  friendly  process  of  law  was  needed  to  give  them  legal 
right  to  the  property.  With  no  small  part  of  this  growth 
George  Holman  Snead  was  associated.  He  was  born  in 
the  adjoining  county  of  Goochland,  at  "Bouling  Hall," 
the  home  of  his  parents,  George  Holman  and  Oranie 
Pollard  Snead.  Soon  after  his  birth,  which  took  place 

306 


GEORGE  HOLMAN  SNEAD  307 

February   17,    1833,    his   parents   moved    to    Fluvanna, 
which  was  for  the  rest  of  his  life  his  home. 

At  the  age  of  fourteen,  in  a  meeting  conducted  by  the 
famous  evangelist,  Reynolds,  who  afterwards  lost  his  life 
in  a  shipwreck  on  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  he  made  a  profes- 
sion of  religion.  Of  seven  children,  one  sister  and  six 
sons,  he  was  the  first  to  accept  Christ.  The  story  of  his 
mother's  joy  because  of  this  event  is  handed  down.  The 
youth  hastened  home  to  tell  his  mother  what  he  had 
done,  and  she,  upon  hearing  the  good  news,  broke  forth 
in  joyful  thanksgiving  to  God.  From  the  neighborhood 
schools  he  passed  to  Richmond  College,  where  he  re- 
mained, 1853-54.  When  he  had  selected  medicine  as  his 
profession  he  became  a  student  at  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, taking  his  M.  D.  degree  at  the  Commencement  of 
1855.  Further  preparation  for  his  life  work  was  secured 
in  Philadelphia,  where  for  several  months  he  was  con- 
nected with  the  Philadelphia  dispensary.  The  year  that 
marked  the  beginning  of  his  professional  work  in  Flu- 
vanna County  he  was  married  to  Miss  Virginia  Clopton 
Perkins.  Until  1877,  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  his  own 
people,  he  followed  successfully  his  chosen  profession, 
being  popular  in  a  wide  section  of  country.  In  these 
years,  into  his  beautiful  home,  a  farm  on  the  banks  of 
the  Rivanna  River,  eight  children,  who  were  to  add 
greatly  to  his  happiness,  were  born.  All  through  these 
two  decades  Dr.  Snead  was  active  as  a  Christian,  being 
a  member  of  Bethel  Church,  which  was  near  his  home, 
and  taking  such  part  in  the  work  of  the  church  as  his 
brethren  laid  upon  him.  While  his  ambition  to  be  the 
superintendent  of  the  Fork  Union  Sunday  School  was 
never  realized,  he  was  for  many  years  in  charge  of  the 
Bethel  Sunday  School.  A  busy  country  physician,  who 
is  an  efficient  Sunday-school  superintendent,  must  be  a 
man  of  earnest  Christian  spirit. 


308         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

After  long  and  grave  reflection,  when  he  had  come  to 
middle  life,  Dr.  Snead  decided  to  enter  the  ministry.  His 
bearing  as  a  citizen,  his  activity  and  earnestness  as  a 
Christian,  and  his  intelligence  and  enthusiasm,  so  com- 
manded the  confidence  of  the  community  that  this 
decision  at  once  received  the  approval  of  the  Fork  Union 
Church.  They  called  for  his  ordination,  that  he  might 
become  their  pastor.  When  the  ordination  had  taken 
place,  the  services  being  held  at  Bethel,  and  the  presby- 
tery consisting  of  Rev.  C.  R.  Dickinson  and  Rev.  W.  A. 
Whitescarver,  he  commenced  his  pastorate,  that  was  to 
last  thirty-four  years  and  to  the  end  of  his  life.  Fork 
Union  and  Bethel  were  his  churches  during  this  long 
period,  and  for  a  briefer  period  he  had  charge  of  the 
Antioch  and  Columbia  Churches.  While  he  was  shepherd 
of  the  last-named  body  a  $5,000  brick  meeting-house  was 
erected  in  the  village  of  Columbia.  Before  Dr.  Snead 
became  pastor  of  the  "Fork"  there  had  been  a  split  in 
the  church  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  new 
organization  in  sight  of  the  old  church.  Soon  after  his 
ordination  he  became  pastor  of  both  these  organizations, 
and  in  the  process  of  time  was  able,  by  his  tact  and  wis- 
dom, to  bring  both  bodies  together  again  into  one  vigor- 
ous and  harmonious  flock.  As  the  years  passed,  the 
"Fork"  grew  in  numbers  and  in  power.  When  Dr. 
Snead  had  registered  twenty  years  of  pastoral  service  on 
one  field,  the  Religious  Herald  paid  tribute  to  this  long 
and  faithful  record  by  publishing  his  picture  and  by  an 
editorial  which  told  about  his  work,  mentioning  the  fact 
that  he  had  baptized  some  four  hundred  persons.  While 
before  he  became  a  minister  his  power  as  a  public  speaker 
was  not  remarkable,  he  grew  to  be  strong  and  impressive 
in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  platform.  His  mind  was  vigor- 
ous, and  he  knew  how  to  think  straight.  He  was  a  man 
of  decided  convictions,  convictions  that  he  never  hesi.- 


GEORGE  HOLMAN  SNEAD  309 

tated  to  announce.  His  presence  was  pleasing  and  com- 
manding, and  until  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  was 
blessed  with  physical  health.  He  declared  that  in  much 
of  his  work  of  visitation  he  was  able  to  blend  the  service 
of  physician  and  pastor,  thus  effecting  a  great  economy 
of  time.  The  severest  winter  weather  never  stopped  him, 
and,  indeed,  he  contended  that  there  was  no  reason  why 
a  country  pastor  or  doctor  should  ever  suffer  from  the 
cold;  it  was  only  necessary  to  make  proper  provisions 
against  the  cold,  provisions  that  were  simple  and  within 
the  reach  of  all.  If  any  man  was  ever  a  prophet  in  his 
own  country,  Dr.  Snead  was  that  man;  in  the  whole 
section  in  which  he  lived  he  was  bound  by  blood  or  mar- 
riage to  almost  every  one,  and  yet  was  a  prophet  with 
honor  among  his  own  people.  This,  for  many  reasons 
that  will  suggest  themselves  to  the  reader,  is  a  remarkable 
record. 

Or.  Snead  was  always  interested  in  education.  For  a 
number  of  years,  in  order  to  secure  the  best  instruction 
for  his  own  daughters  and  at  the  same  time  for  the 
daughters  of  his  neighbors,  he  maintained  in  his  home 
a  girls'  boarding-school.  When,  under  the  leadership  of 
Dr.  Wm.  E.  Hatcher,  the  Fork  Union  Academy  was 
established,  he  was  among  its  strongest  supporters,  one 
of  the  trustees,  up  to  a  few  years  before  his  death  the 
resident  physician,  and  the  first  to  suggest  the  military 
feature.  The  students  always  had  a  warm  place  in  his 
heart. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  for  some  fifteen  years 
before  his  death  he  suffered,  at  times  most  severely,  from 
grievous  diseases,  to  the  end  he  kept  up  his  work.  To 
within  a  few  weeks  of  the  end  he  was  in  his  pulpit.  He 
was  a  man  of  abounding  energy,  and  his  hope  had  always 
been  that  he  might  die  in  the  harness.  And  so  it  was. 
Ten  days  before  his  death  he  was  taken  to  St.  Luke's 


310         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Hospital,  Richmond,  for  surgical  treatment,  but  relief 
was  not  obtained,  and  on  Saturday,  July  1,  1911,  he 
passed  away.  It  is  not  strange  that  a  great  concourse 
of  people  gathered  at  Fork  Union  the  following  Monday 
for  the  funeral.  The  trustees  of  the  Academy  were  a 
funeral  escort,  the  deacons  of  the  church,  the  honorary, 
and  his  nephews,  the  active,  pall-bearers.  Dr.  Wm.  E. 
Hatcher  presided  over  the  services;  resolutions  of 
respect  from  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Academy  were 
read  by  Rev.  L.  H.  Walton,  who  also  paid  a  loving 
tribute  to  the  departed  one;  the  chief  address  was 
delivered  by  Rev.  Dr.  Sparks  W.  Melton,  and  the  closing 
one  by  Rev.  Dr.  George  W.  McDaniel.  The  body  was 
laid  to  rest  close  to  the  church.  On  the  last  Sunday  in 
July  a  memorial  service  was  held  at  Bethel,  where  Dr. 
Snead  had  been  pastor  for  thirty-three  years,  the  main 
address  on  this  occasion  being  delivered  by  Rev.  L.  H. 
Walton.  His  children  who  survive  him  are  Mrs.  Jos.  T. 
Snead,  Mrs.  George  M.  Bashaw,  Mr.  Channing  C.  Snead, 
Mrs.  C.  Vernon  Snyder,  and  Dr.  Nash  P.  Snead. 


FRANCIS  RYLAND  BOSTON 

1847-1911 

Francis  Ryland  Boston  was  born  at  Shelltown,  Somer- 
set County,  Maryland,  December  29,  1847,  his  parents 
being  Rev.  Solomon  Charles  and  Mary  Ann  Marshall 
Boston.  The  atmosphere  and  traditions  of  the  home 
into  which  this  only  child  came  were  distinctly  devout 
and  religious.  Throughout  life  he  carried  with  him  the 
memory  of  his  grandfather,  who  was  careful  to  maintain 
family  worship,  and  whose  house  was  the  preacher's 
home.  As  a  boy,  when  his  father  called  to  him  not  to 
make  so  much  noise,  he  knew  that  Sunday's  sermon  was 
in  preparation,  and  when  he  himself  became  a  preacher 
and  a  pastor  consciously  and  unconsciously  he  found 
himself  following  his  father's  methods.  When  he  had 
finished,  in  the  town  of  Princess  Anne,  Somerset  County, 
Maryland,  his  academic  preparation,  he  entered  Colum- 
bian College,  Washington,  D.  C.  His  professors  at 
Columbian  were  Clarke,  Fristoe,  Shute,  Ruggles,  Hunt- 
ington,  and  Samson,  and  among  the  students  were  James 
Nelson,  J.  Taylor  Ellyson,  and  F.  H.  Kerfoot.  His 
friendship  with  F.  H.  Kerfoot,  begun  in  college,  was 
strengthened  at  the  Theological  Seminary,  where  they 
graduated  together.  While  his  father  was  pastor  at  Lee 
Street  Baptist  Church,  Baltimore,  on  April  15,  1869, 
Mrs.  Boston  died.  This  sad  event,  and  the  illness  which 
went  before  it,  caused  the  son  to  select  Crozer  Seminary, 
which  was  not  far  away,  as  the  place  to  pursue  his  theo- 
logical studies.  Here  he  graduated  in  1872. 

His  first  pastorate  was  at  Hernando,  Miss.  In  the 
month  of  August,  of  the  same  year  that  took  him  to 

311 


312         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Hernando,  he  married  Miss  Annie  Lewis  Schoolfield,  the 
only  child  of  Ira  Chase  Schoolfield,  of  Petersburg,  Va. 
In  1875  he  accepted  a  call  to  the  church  at  Onancock, 
Accomac  County,  Virginia.  From  there,  in  1878,  he 
went  to  the  pastorate  of  the  church  at  Hampton,  Va., 
where  he  remained  seven  years.  He  left  Hampton  to 
become  the  pastor  of  the  Curtis  Baptist  Church,  Augusta, 
Ga.  He  remained  in  Augusta  only  one  year,  leaving 
there  to  accept,  in  1884,  a  call  to  Warrenton,  Va.  Now 
commenced  what  was  to  be  his  life  work,  a  pastorate 
that,  with  one  break,  was  to  last  some  twenty-three  years. 
On  April  25,  1885,  about  six  months  after  he  went  to 
Warrenton,  his  wife  departed  this  life.  In  1887  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Mary  Armistead  Spilman,  the  daughter 
of  Mr.  John  A.  Spilman,  of  Warrenton.  In  1891  he 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Central  Baptist  Church,  Memphis, 
Tenn.  After  three  years  he  returned  to  Warrenton, 
where  he  remained  as  pastor  until  his  death,  Wednesday, 
August  23,  1911.  Two  children  of  his  first  marriage, 
Mrs.  E.  S.  Turner  and  Mrs.  C.  S.  Boston,  and  two  of 
the  second  marriage,  Miss  Florence  and  Mr.  John  Armis- 
tead Boston,  with  their  mother,  survive  him. 

Dr.  Boston  was  a  man  of  culture  and  refinement.  He 
was  genial  and  cordial  in  spirit,  and  decided  in  his  con- 
victions. He  was  greatly  beloved  and  esteemed  by  the 
Virginia  Baptist  brotherhood,  being  counted  as  one  of 
their  most  trusted  leaders.  By  pen  and  voice  he  was 
always  ready  to  champion  movements  that  made  for  the 
progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  In  June,  1903,  he  had 
in  his  pulpit  Rev.  Dr.  W.  H.  Whitsitt,  who  delivered 
before  the  Judson  Missionary  Society  of  the  church  an 
address  on  Luther  Rice,  and  in  September  of  the  same 
year  a  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Convention,  looking  to  the  establish- 
ment of  this  kind  of  work  in  country  districts,  was  held 
in  Warrenton.  Both  of  these  events  greatly  interested 


FRANCIS  RYLAND  BOSTON  313 

Dr.  Boston,  and  he  wrote  about  them  to  the  Religious 
Herald.  He  was  painstaking  and  conscientious  in  what- 
ever he  undertook.  At  Alexandria,  some  years  ago,  at 
a  State  District  B.  Y.  P.  U.  meeting,  he  was  to  lead  one 
of  the  sunrise  prayer-meetings.  Notwithstanding  the 
fact  that  it  was  past  midnight  before  he  got  to  sleep,  the 
next  morning,  at  a  very  early  hour,  he  was  up  making 
his  final  preparation  for  the  service  he  was  to  conduct. 
Once  in  a  prayer-meeting  at  the  First  Baptist  Church, 
Richmond,  he  said,  the  subject  being  the  duty  and  best 
method  of  reading  the  Bible,  that  he  loved  to  take  the 
Bible  up  and  just  read  on  and  on  and  on.  One  of  his 
brother  pastors,  who  knew  him  very  well,  writes :  "Oh, 
how  gentle,  how  guileless,  pure,  consecrated,  and  faith- 
ful was  he !  He  sought  to  please  the  Master,  but,  at  the 
same  time,  he  was  so  gentle  and  considerate  of  the  people 
that  even  those  who  did  not  believe  in  Christ  loved 
Christ's  minister.  In  the  way  of  patience,  meekness,  and 
gentleness,  Boston  was  my  despair."  Warrenton,  one  of 
the  cultured  towns  of  Piedmont  Virginia,  where  Dr. 
Boston  spent  the  larger  part  of  his  ministry,  will  not  soon 
cease  to  feel  the  blessed  influence  of  his  life  and  service. 
His  death  was  sudden  and  unexpected.  After  a  sick- 
ness of  several  weeks  and  an  illness  of  only  a  few  days, 
an  operation  for  appendicitis  not  having  brought  the 
hoped-for  relief,  he  died  at  the  Providence  Hospital, 
Washington,  D.  C.  His  body  was  taken  to  Warrenton 
for  burial. 


FRERRE  HOUSTON  JONES 

1836-1911 

Although  his  birth  and  death  took  place  in  North 
Carolina,  Frerre  Houston  Jones  was  pastor  for  a  number 
of  years  in  Virginia.  His  father,  one  of  three  brothers 
who  came  over  from  the  old  country,  apparently  after 
some  wanderings,  finally  made  a  permanent  settlement  on 
the  Yadkin  River.  The  parents  of  the  subject  of  this 
sketch  were  Jonathan  and  Hannah  Jones,  and  he  was 
born  September  4,  1836.  Here  the  boy,  in  whose  veins 
ran  Scotch-Irish  blood,  spent  his  youthful  years.  When 
he  had  completed  his  education  he  went,  as  a  young  man, 
to  teach  school  in  Tennessee.  This  work  was  interrupted 
by  the  death  of  his  father,  which  called  him  home.  The 
Civil  War  having  broken  out,  he  became  a  missionary  of 
the  Yadkin  Association,  among  the  soldiers  in  eastern 
North  Carolina.  Before  this  time  he  had  been  baptized 
by  Rev.  C.  W.  Bessant  and  ordained  to  the  gospel 
ministry  by  a  presbytery  consisting  of  Rev.  G.  W.  Brown 
and  Rev.  Isaac  Davis.  In  the  meetings  which  he  con- 
ducted in  camps  near  Kinston,  Goldsboro,  Washington, 
Edenton,  and  Tarboro,  many  soldiers  were  converted, 
not  a  few  of  them  receiving  baptism  at  his  hands.  At 
the  close  of  the  War  he  was  appointed  missionary  of  the 
Beulah  Association,  which  included  the  counties  of  For- 
sythe,  Stokes,  Guilford,  Rockingham,  Caswell,  Person, 
and  a  part  of  Granville.  His  efforts  to  establish  mission 
points,  that  would  grow  into  self-sustaining,  strong 
churches,  were  highly  successful.  Prosperous  churches 
to-day  in  Reidsville,  Winston,  and  Greensboro,  are 
monuments  to  his  zeal  and  the  blessing  of  God  that 

314 


FRERRE  HOUSTON  JONES  315 

crowned  his  labors.  Because  of  his  executive  ability  and 
his  gifts  as  a  financier,  disciplinarian,  and  organizer,  his 
work  was  so  fruitful.  He  won  for  himself  the  title  of 
"The  Church  Builder."  Mr.  Jones  was  of  medium  size 
and  some  five  feet  nine  inches  tall.  His  hair  was  brown 
and  his  eyes  hazel.  His  mouth  was  well  shaped,  and  his 
expression  and  manner  gentle  and  pleasing. 

In  1885  he  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  at 
Chatham,  Va.  During  his  pastorate  of  twelve  years  in 
this  attractive  town  the  membership  of  his  church  grew 
from  80  to  144,  and  a  new  meeting-house,  costing  about 
$12,000,  was  built.  His  field,  while  he  was  in  Chatham, 
embraced  the  two  prosperous  country  churches,  Mt. 
Hermon  and  Kentuck.  During  his  service  with  them  the 
Kentuck  Church  erected  a  commodious  house  of  worship. 
Before  his  work  in  Virginia  ended  he  had  ministered  also 
to  these  churches :  Bannister,  Marion,  Sharon,  Vandola, 
Union  Hill,  and  Ringgold.  His  field  in  Virginia  was  in 
the  Roanoke  Association,  of  which  body  he  was,  for 
many  years,  moderator.  In  this  general  section  he  did 
much  to  develop  the  churches  in  benevolence  and  in  the 
missionary  spirit.  Upon  resigning  at  Chatham  he  moved 
to  Reidsville,  N.  C.  After  a  season  given  to  recuperation 
he  took  up  mission  work  in  the  Piedmont  Association, 
and  later  became  pastor  of  several  country  churches  not 
far  from  Reidsville.  He  declined  more  than  one  position 
of  prominence,  glad  to  work  on  in  an  humble,  quiet  way. 
In  the  course  of  the  years  he  was  moderator  of  the 
Beulah  and  Piedmont  Associations  and  an  officer  of  the 
North  Carolina  Baptist  State  Convention.  He  was  a 
great  friend  of  young  ministers.  In  many  instances  they 
passed  their  vacations  in  his  home,  doing  work,  which 
he  had  secured  for  them,  that  enabled  them  to  return  to 
college  in  the  autumn.  He  died  at  Reidsville,  N.  C., 
December  1,  1911.  The  funeral  was  conducted  by  these 


316         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ministers :  H.  A.  Brown,  W.  C.  Tyree,  J.  B.  Brewer, 
D.  I.  Craig,  and  W.  F.  Womble.  His  wife,  to  whom  he 
was  married  on  February  18,  1864,  was  Miss  Emma 
Brown,  of  Person  County,  North  Carolina,  the  daughter 
of  Green  W.  Brown  and  Elizabeth  Coleman,  of  Virginia. 
The  children  of  this  union  who  grew  up  are  William 
Houston  Jones,  Mrs.  C.  G.  Jones,  Mrs.  H.  L.  Morrison, 
Mrs.  R.  S.  Williams,  and  Miss  Minerva  Louise  Jones. 
His  wife  survives  him. 

Rev.  Wm.  Hedley,  now  of  Ashland,  Va.,  writes  thus 
of  Mr.  Jones  in  the  Religious  Herald:  "It  has  been  my 
privilege  to  visit  many  of  these  communities  where 
Brother  Jones  labored,  and  in  every  place  to  have  heard 
unstinted  praise  accorded  to  him  for  the  faithfulness  of 
his  work  and  the  purity  of  his  character.  These  tributes 
were  paid  while  he  was  yet  alive.  For  a  little  over  four 
years  I  had  the  honor  of  being  his  pastor.  .  .  .  His 
guileless  life,  his  sweet  spirit  of  cooperation,  his  kindly 
appreciation  of  one's  ministry,  his  delightful  conversa- 
tion on  gospel  themes,  endeared  him  to  my  heart,  and  he 
crowned  his  excellencies  with  as  pervasive  a  spirit  of 
humility  as  was  possessed  by  any  man.  For  fifty  years 
he  had  preached  the  gospel,  and  fully  two  thousand  souls 
had  he  buried  in  baptism." 


S.  H.  THOMPSON 
1854-1912 

While  his  life,  and  later  his  ministry,  began  in  North 
Carolina,  the  most  fruitful  years  of  Rev.  S.  H.  Thomp- 
son's life  were  spent  in  Virginia.  Here,  for  two  decades, 
he  gave  himself  to  preaching,  also  having,  a  part  of  this 
time,  the  burden  and  the  blessing  of  the  teacher.  He  was 
born  in  Alamance  County,  April  28,  1854,  and  spent  the 
days  of  his  boyhood  on  his  father's  farm.  On  this  farm 
his  education,  in  the  truest  sense,  began,  for  a  country 
boy  never  gets  over  his  country  life.  He  studied  in  the 
academy  conducted  by  the  Rev.  William  Thompson  at 
old  Salem  Church,  and  then  passed,  for  further 
preparation,  to  the  National  Normal  University  at 
Lebanon,  Ohio.  Finally,  at  Franklin  College,  Franklin, 
Tnd..  he  took  both  the  B.  A.  and  the  M.  A.  degrees.  To 
those  who  knew  and  heard  him  preach  and  speak  in 
the  years  of  his  public  ministry  it  seemed  that  he  brought 
back  the  impress  of  the  Middle  West  in  his  pronuncia- 
tion and  in  the  tone  of  his  voice.  Deeper  than  accent 
and  manner  was  the  vim  and  determination  of  the  man. 
and  if  from  these  marks  one  did  not  soon  guess  his 
Scotch-Irish  blood,  he  was  apt,  before  long,  to  claim  and 
glory  in  such  extraction.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he 
was  converted,  and,  having  led  an  earnest  Christian  life, 
was,  in  June,  1879,  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry.  The 
year  before,  on  July  18,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Tabitha 
Schan. 

His  ministry  in  Virginia  began,  and  continued  for 
some  ten  years,  in  the  Dan  River  Association.  During 
this  period  he  was  pastor,  first  of  Black  Walnut,  South 

317 


318         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Boston,  and  Scottsburg  Churches,  and  later  of  a  field 
composed  of  the  Scottsburg  and  Catawba  Churches.  It 
was  during  this  time  that  he  gave  part  of  his  strength  to 
teaching.  While  pastor  at  South  Boston  he  cordially 
cooperated  with  Rev.  John  R.  Moffett  in  his  work  for 
the  great  cause  of  temperance.  At  a  crisis  in  the  history 
of  the  Anti-Liquor,  a  paper  which  Moffett  had  estab- 
lished, Mr.  Thompson  came  to  the  rescue  and  assumed 
one-half  of  the  financial  burden,  taking  also  a  good  share 
of  the  editorial  work.  From  this  Halifax  County  field 
Mr.  Thompson  went,  in  1900,  to  Farmville,  Va.,  to 
become  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  of  that  town.  Here 
he  remained  till  1904,  being  an  effective  leader  in  his 
District  Association  (the  Appomattox),  as  well  as  a 
faithful  pastor.  From  1904  until  1910  he  was  pastor 
of  the  First  Church,  Bluefield,  W.  Va.,  and  in  these 
years,  under  his  leadership,  a  handsome  meeting-house 
was  built.  From  the  crest  of  the  Alleghanies  he  moved 
to  Lake  City,  Fla.,  where  he  was  pastor  of  the  church 
and  a  teacher  in  the  college.  It  was  here  that  the  painful 
illness  began  that  terminated  in  his  death,  at  Richmond, 
Thursday,  January  25,  1912.  One  who  had  known  him 
for  years,  and  who  saw  him  in  these  months  of  great 
physical  suffering,  says  that  his  faith,  instead  of  waver- 
ing, seemed  to  grow  stronger  because  of  this  awful  trial. 
At  last  the  end  of  his  agony  came;  the  funeral  took 
place  at  Farmville,  the  remains  and  the  widow  and  two 
daughters  being  accompanied  on  this  sad  journey  from 
Richmond  bv  Rev.  R.  D.  Garland. 


HENRY  WISE  TRIBBLE 
1862-1912 

On  the  campus  of  Columbia  College,  Lake  City,  Fla., 
is  the  grave  of  Henry  Wise  Tribble,  who,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  was  the  president  of  this  college.  .His  death 
was  tragic.  He  was  returning  from  the  Baptist  Florida 
Convention  at  Ocala.  where  the  college  had  received  a 
"launching  gift"  of  $27,000  towards  its  endowment. 
Between  Cummings,  on  the  man  line  of  the  railroad,  and 
Rodman,  where  he  was  preaching,  in  connection  with  his 
college  work,  twice  a  month,  an  accident  occurred  which 
resulted  in  his  death.  Cummings  and  Rodman  are  con- 
nected by  a  sawmill  road.  "Over  that  road  a  log  train 
is  operated,  and  passengers  are  taken  in  an  auto  truck 
which  uses  the  same  track.  It  was  night,  and  the  log 
train  had  gone  ahead ;  Dr.  Tribble  and  two  other  passen- 
gers were  following.  They  had  no  lights,  and  the  train 
had  stopped  when  the  auto  crushed  into  it.  The  collision 
might  not  have  been  serious  had  not  a  log  protruded  from 
the  rear  car;  that  jammed  through  the  truck,  catching 
and  crushing  Dr.  Tribble's  leg.  It  passed  on  through  and 
crushed  the  leg  of  a  negro  passenger  sitting  in  the  rear. 
The  injuries  of  the  negro  are  said  to  have  been  worse 
than  those  of  Dr.  Tribble,  and  he  is  recovering  without 
amputation."  Thus  Dr.  C.  W.  Duke  described,  in  a 
letter  to  the  Reliyiotis  Herald,  this  accident.  He  was 
lovingly  cared  for  in  the  home  of  Henry  S.  Cummings, 
a  sawmill  man  and  an  earnest  Christian ;  but  on  Tuesday, 
February  6,  1912,  with  the  coming  of  the  dawn,  his 
spirit  passed  to  God.  On  Thursday,  February  8,  the 
fifty-first  anniversary  of  his  birth,  his  funeral  took  place, 

319 


320         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Rev.  Dr.  L.  B.  Warren,  who  conducted  the  service,  being 
assisted  by  Rev.  Dr.  A.  J.  Holt,  Rev.  Dr.  S.  B.  Rogers, 
Rev.  Dr.  C.  W.  Duke,  and  Mr.  Will  D.  Upshaw.  Thus, 
in  the  full  flush  of  a  vigorous  manhood  and  an  active 
ministry,  there  came  what  seems,  from  the  merely  human 
standpoint,  an  untimely  end  to  this  useful  life,  but  God 
has  his  "mysteries  of  grace."  Dr.  Tribble  had  not  been 
long  in  Florida,  scarcely  long  enough  to  learn  that  one 
can  not  move  with  the  vim,  in  such  a  relaxing  climate,  as 
is  possible  in  the  bracing  air  of  Piedmont  Virginia.  At 
the  Jacksonville  Convention,  in  May,  1911,  he  was  the 
picture  of  health,  weighing  not  less  than  180  pounds, 
and,  as  he  expressed  his  concern  for  his  fellow-minister, 
Rev.  S.  H.  Thompson,  who  was  extremely  ill,  no  human 
eye  could  foresee  that  their  deaths  would  be  separated 
by  only  a  few  days. 

Vigorous  in  body,  Dr.  Tribble  was  likewise  vigorous 
in  mind.  In  him  these  two  assets  for  success  seemed  to 
go  together.  He  was  a  good  sleeper,  and  usually  had  a 
good  appetite.  He  had  a  good  supply  of  rich  red  blood. 
What  with  his  fine  bodily  presence  and  his  fearless 
spirit  he  was  a  most  manly  man.  In  his  early  ministry 
a  burly  fellow  took  some  exception  to  a  rebuke  he  had 
uttered  in  the  pulpit,  and  at  the  close  of  the  service  made 
show  of  fight.  Tribble's  invitation  to  come  around  back 
of  the  church,  if  he  wanted  to  have  it  out,  ended  the  mat- 
ter. Dr.  Tribble  was  a  leader  rather  than  a  follower. 
He  did  his  own  thinking,  came  to  his  own  conclusions, 
and  could  give  his  reasons  for  his  views.  In  his  Rich- 
mond College  student  days,  at  the  end  of  the  session  of 
1883-84,  when  he  won  his  B.  A.  degree,  he  also  took  the 
Frances  Gwin  Philosophy  medal.  This  victory  gave 
evidence  of  the  caliber  of  his  mind  and  proved  a  prophecy 
of  his  mental  grasp  of  the  problems  of  life.  His  mind 
was  quick,  and  he  was  practical  rather  than  visionary  in 


HENRY  WISE  TRIBBLE  321 

the  way  he  approached  the  tasks  of  the  daily  round. 
Dr.  Duke,  in  the  letter  to  the  Herald  mentioned  above, 
tells  how,  when  he,  in  his  days  at  Richmond  College,  was 
ill  with  typhoid  fever,  four  students,  Tribble  being  the 
foremost,  watched  by  his  bedside  at  night  to  relieve  the 
anxious  and  weary  parents. 

Caroline  County  was  his  birthplace,  and  here,  on  June 
15,  1885,  at  Carmel  Church,  he  was  ordained  to  the 
gospel  ministry.  Before  his  course  at  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Theological  Seminary,  Louisville,  was  completed,  he 
had  given  a  year  of  service  as  pastor  of  the  Liberty  and 
Hebron  Churches,  Appomattox  County,  Virginia.  Upon 
his  graduation  at  Louisville  he  became  pastor  at  Jackson, 
Tenn.  In  this  university  town  he  remained,  doing  excel- 
lent service,  until  1895,  when  he  became  pastor  of  the 
First  Baptist  Church  of  Charlottesville.  Here  he  was  to 
do  the  main  work  of  his  life.  After  five  years  at  the 
First  Church,  on  October  4,  1900,  under  his  leadership, 
the  High  Street  Baptist  Church  was  organized,  he 
becoming  its  pastor.  In  eight  years,  having  set  out  with 
a  membership  of  50,  High  Street  came  to  be  a  company 
of  325  members,  with  a  good  meeting-house  properly 
equipped  and  paid  for.  Three  years  before  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  High  Street  Church,  Dr.  Tribble  had  taken 
upon  his  shoulders  the  additional  burden  of  the  presi- 
dency of  the  Rawlings  Institute.  He  kept  the  school  full 
from  year  to  year,  gathered  around  him  an  able  faculty, 
and  was  untiring  in  his  efforts  to  set  upon  a  sure  financial 
foundation  this  institution  for  the  education  of  young 
women. 

As  a  preacher  Dr.  Tribble  was  in  the  front  rank.  Dur- 
ing his  life  in  Charlottesville  he  kept  in  close  touch  with 
the  University  of  Virginia,  and  often  preached  in  the 
University  Chapel.  While  this  pulpit  is  filled  from  Sun- 
day to  Sunday  by  distinguished  ministers  from  all  parts 


21 


322         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

of  the  land  and  of  all  denominations,  Dr.  Tribble  was 
regarded  by  the  University  community  as  fully  equal,  in 
pulpit  ability,  to  the  distinguished  divines  who  came  to 
them  from  a  distance.  As  a  preacher,  his  method  of 
developing  a  theme  was  natural,  interesting,  incisive. 
His  style  was  clear.  His  illustrations  were  apt.  His 
sermons  were  short;  indeed,  it  was  said,  half  playfully, 
perhaps,  that  he  was  given  the  degree  of  Doctor  of 
Divinity  because  he  preached  so  well  and  yet  preached 
only  twenty  minutes.  In  the  social  circle  he  was  genial 
and  entertaining,  able  to  tell  a  good  story  and  ready  to 
join  in  the  laughter  that  marks  the  moment  of  lighter 
vein.  He  was  a  delightful  and  helpful  companion.  He 
was  highly  esteemed  by  the  denomination,  being  a  leader 
in  the  work  in  the  State  and  the  South.  He  was  for 
some  .years  a  trustee  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  and  in  this  position  bore  an  important  part  in 
the  solution  of  difficult  problems  in  the  life  of  this  school 
of  the  prophets.  In  1905  he  was  one  of  the  vice- 
presidents  of  the  Baptist  General  Association  of  Virginia. 
In  1888  he  was  married  to  Miss  Belle  Estelle  Rawlings, 
of  Augusta  County,  Virginia,  who,  with  six  children, 
survived  him. 

Besides  the  services  held  in  Florida,  in  memory  of  this 
man  of  God,  on  the  Sunday  morning  after  his  death,  at 
the  High  Street  Church,  Charlottesville,  Rev.  Dr.  H.  W. 
Battle,  the  pastor,  delivered  a  memorial  sermon  based  on 
the  words:  "And  Enoch  walked  with  God,  and  he  was 
not,  for  God  took  him."  The  auditorium  was  appropri- 
ately draped,  a  large  congregation  was  present,  and  a 
paper,  prepared  by  the  pastor  and  deacons,  setting  forth 
briefly  the  character  and  work  of  Dr.  Tribble,  was 
adopted.  At  3  P.  M.  of  the  same  day  another  service  was 
held  in  the  First  Baptist  Church,  when  the  pastors  and 
mayor  of  Charlottesville  paid  tributes  to  his  memory. 


ALBERT  D.  REYNOLDS 
1844-1912 

The  Northern  Neck  of  Virginia  was  the  birthplace  and 
the  life  arena  of  Albert  D.  Reynolds.  In  Westmoreland 
County  he  first  saw  the  light,  his  parents  being  humble 
but  godly  people.  Since  his  early  days  were  spent  in  the 
open  air,  at  work  on  a  farm,  and  the  years  of  his  budding 
manhood,  amidst  the  hardships  of  war  and  the  stirring 
experiences  of  a  soldier  in  the  cavalry,  he  came  to  the 
real  work  of  his  life,  seasoned  and  hardened.  This  may, 
in  some  degree,  have  compensated  for  his  failure  to 
secure  the  regular  training  of  the  schools.  He  doubtless 
had,  by  nature,  the  power  of  making  himself  at  home 
with  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  but  it  is  to  be  sup- 
posed that  his  life  in  the  army  developed  this  aptitude. 
For  service  in  the  Confederate  Army  he  enlisted  in 
Company  D,  9th  Virginia  Cavalry,  a  most  dashing  and 
daring  command.  It  may  have  been  that  a  love  for  a 
horse  led  him  to  join  the  cavalry.  If  so,  this  taste  must 
have  grown  during  the  four  years  of  fighting,  for  it  is 
certain  that  one  of  the  marks  of  his  after-life  was  "a 
fondness  for  a  stylish  and  well-groomed  horse." 

Early  in  life  he  became  a  professing  Christian,  uniting 
with  Nomini  Church.  Here  he  found  opportunity  to 
speak  in  public  and  to  lead  in  prayer,  and  here  his  faith- 
fulness and  ability  were  in  due  season  recognized,  and  he 
was  made  a  deacon,  Rev.  M.  F.  Sanford  being  elected 
to  this  office  at  the  same  time.  Once  again  his  mother- 
church  recognized  his  gifts  and  called  for  his  ordination 
to  the  gospel  ministry.  In  the  month  of  December,  at 
Coan  Church,  Northumberland  County,  he  was  set  apart 

323 


324         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

for  this  work.  He  was  pastor  first  of  Bethany  and 
Providence  (Northumberland  County)  Churches.  On, 
until  within  a  few  weeks  of  his  death,  he  labored  continu- 
ously as  a  Baptist  pastor.  Before  his  ministry  closed, 
besides  those  already  named,  he  had  served,  in  several 
cases  for  twelve  or  thirteen  years,  these  churches: 
Totuskey,  Pope's  Creek,  Oak  Grove,  Rappahannock, 
Carrotoman,  Montague's,  and  Welcome  Grove,  all  in  the 
Rappahannock  Association.  "His  official  connections 
thus  held  with  these  churches  in  five  counties  exceeded  in 
number  those  of  any  other  minister  who  has  yet  labored 
in  the  Northern  Neck,  and  brought  him  into  personal 
touch  with  more  families  and  individuals  dwelling  in  that 
region.  It  came  to  be  true  that  in  the  long  round  of  his 
travels  in  visiting  his  congregations  he  could,  with  rare 
exception,  recognize  and  familiarly  greet  every  resident 
face  that  he  met.  If  there  be  many  preachers  whose 
search  is  for  books  and  who  read  commentaries,  he 
sought  his  fellow-men  and  studied  human  characters.'* 

What  has  already  been  said  about  his  lack  of  educa- 
tional training  and  about  his  love  for  men  and  the  study 
of  mankind  throws  light  on  his  power  and  limitations 
as  a  preacher.  "In  preaching  he  was  better  able  to  break 
the  hearts  of  sinners  than  not  to  break  the  rules  of  gram- 
mar. Without  the  study  of  homiletics,  without  well- 
adjusted  notes,  with  scantiest  aid  of  pen  or  books,  or 
general  reading,  his  mind  was  yet  quick,  inventive, 
capable  of  strong  reasoning,  logical  and  argumentative, 
and  withal  ever  ready  to  gather  energy  and  force  from 
its  own  action.  A  holy  fire  burned  in  his  heart,  and  his 
appeals,  no  less  in  private  than  in  public,  were  fearless, 
searching,  direct,  and  strong,  and  many  shining  seals 
were  added  to  his  ministry." 

For  several  years  before  his  death  a  diseased  internal 
organ  often  caused  him  great  pain.  In  the  winter  of 


ALBERT  D.  REYNOLDS  325 

1912  he  was  taken  to  Baltimore  in  the  hope  that  a 
surgical  operation  might  bring  him  renewed  strength  and 
relief  from  pain.  Travel  between  his  home  and  Balti- 
more is  only  by  water.  A  spell  of  severely  cold  weather 
closed  this  means  of  communication  just  at  the  time 
when  he  needed  in  the  hospital  the  sight  of  loving  faces 
and  the  touch  of  loved  ones'  hands.  Alone  he  walked 
tlui  path  that  leads  to  the  river  of  death,  and  yet  surely  he 
was  not  alone,  for  to  him  was  the  promise :  "When  thou 
passest  through  the  waters  I  will  be  with  thee."  In  his 
sixty-eighth  year,  on  February  12,  1912,  he  departed 
this  life.  His  second  wife  and  three  daughters  survived 
him.  She,  and  her  sister,  who  was  his  first  wife,  were 
both  daughters  of  Rev.  James  Weaver,  a  Baptist 
preacher.  The  quotations  in  this  sketch  are  from  an 
article  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  George  W.  Beale,  from  which 
article,  and  from  the  obituary  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Gen- 
eral Association  by  Rev.  E.  L.  Hardcastle,  many  of  these 
facts  have  been  taken. 


ALBERT  GRANT  HASH 
1876-1912 

One  of  the  many  mysteries  of  God's  providence  that 
we  do  not  understand  is  why  young  men,  full  of  promise, 
and  busy  in  successful  work  for  God  and  humanity,  are 
cut  off.  Such  a  life  was  that  of  Albert  Grant  Hash.  He 
was  born  among  the  mountains  of  Virginia,  and  died  a 
pastor  in  one  of  the  towns  of  Georgia.  Before  he  had 
rounded  out  four  decades  he  was  called  away.  Not  long 
after  his  birth,  which  took  place  in  Grayson  County, 
March  14,  1876,  he  was  deprived,  by  death,  of  the  com- 
fort and  blessing  of  a  mother's  love.  He  was  the  son 
of  Abram  and  Rebekah  Hash,  and  had  three  brothers, 
one  sister,  one  half-brother,  and  one  half-sister.  His 
boyhood  days  were  spent  on  the  farm,  helping  his  father. 
The  mountain  school  which  he  attended  in  these  early 
years  brought  him  into  touch  with  a  teacher,  Miss  Sarah 
La  Rue,  who,  a  few  years  later,  was  in  charge  of  the 
academy  at  Pearisburg.  When  he  was  eighteen  years 
old  he  left  his  home  and  went  to  this  academy,  drawn 
hither,  as  it  seems,  by  his  old  teacher.  For  the  next  three 
years  he  studied  in  the  winter,  and  during  the  summer 
was  himself  a  teacher.  At  the  age  of  sixteen  he  made 
a  profession  of  religion  and  united  with  the  Pine  Branch 
Church,  and  while  at  Pearisburg  he  felt  called  to  preach 
the  gospel.  In  1897  he  was  licensed  by  his  home  church, 
and  on  July  17,  1898,  the  same  body  ordained  him,  the 
presbytery  being  composed  of  these  preachers  :  Rev.  J.  F. 
Fletcher,  Rev.  J.  S.  Murray,  and  Rev.  A.  S.  Murray.  At 
once,  after  this  event,  he  set  out  for  Alabama  to  prepare 
to  enter  Howard  College.  He  entered  this  institution 

326 


ALBERT  GRANT  HASH  327 

and  pursued  his  studies  for  two  years,  being  pastor,  at 
the  same  time,  of  neighboring  churches.  He  suffered  an 
attack  of  typhoid  fever,  in  the  summer  of  1900,  which 
was  almost  fatal,  and  the  effects  of  which  he  never  fully 
overcame.  He  was,  because  of  this  illness,  unable  to 
complete  his  college  course,  and  for  four  or  five  years 
could  do  little  work  of  any  kind.  One  who  knew  him  well 
says  that  "during  these  years  of  waiting  he  was  learning 
the  lessons  of  simple  faith  and  patience  that  ever  charac- 
terized his  remaining  years.  His  bodily  weakness,  to 
him,  was  an  open  door  into  God's  presence  and  power." 
He  became  pastor  of  the  Fort  Gaines  Baptist  Church  in 
January,  1905,  a  position  that  he  was  to  hold  for  seven 
years  and  until  his  death,  which  took  place  March  4,  1912. 
He  soon  gained  the  esteem,  not  only  of  the  church,  but 
of  the  whole  community.  When,  in  the  fall  of  this  same 
year,  he  was  obliged  to  go  to  Johns  Hopkins  Hospital, 
Baltimore,  for  treatment,  his  church  bore  the  expenses 
of  this  trip.  With  renewed  strength,  for  the  years  that 
followed  he  gave  himself  unstintingly  to  his  church  and 
to  the  community,  thus  binding  more  closely  to  him  his 
people  and  the  town.  On  April  17,  1907,  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Leola  Paullin,  the  youngest  daughter  of  Mr.  J.  E. 
Paullin,  one  of  the  deacons  of  the  church.  Hand  in  hand 
this  husband  and  wife  worked  for  God  till  His  summons 
came.  March  4,  1912,  he  passed  from  earth.  The 
church  adopted  resolutions  expressing  their  admiration 
for  him  and  their  sorrow  at  his  death.  The  Christian 
Index,  in  noticing  his  departure,  printed  an  excellent 
picture  of  him,  a  picture  suggestive  at  once  of  gentleness, 
strength  of  character,  and  piety.  His  wife  and  a  little 
girl  survive  him. 


WALTER  RHODES 
1872(?)-1912 

The  ministerial  work,  in  Virginia,  of  Rev.  Walter 
Rhodes,  a  native  of  Baltimore,  Md.,  and  a  descendant 
of  Zachariah  Rhodes  (who  landed  in  this  country  with 
Roger  Williams),  was  done  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  His 
first  pastorate  there  was  from  1899  to  1903,  his  churches 
being  Atlantic,  Chincoteague,  Reamy  Memorial,  and 
Modest  Town.  His  second  pastorate  in  this  section,  at 
the  Onancock  Church,  began  in  1909,  and  was  broken  by 
the  hand  of  death.  Between  these  two  seasons  on  the 
Eastern  Shore  came  his  service  in  Baltimore,  where  he 
was  pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  until  October 
24,  1908.  During  his  first  sojourn  in  Accomac  County 
he  published  a  newspaper  devoted  to  the  interests  of  the 
Baptist  cause  on  the  Eastern  Shore.  Not  only  in  his 
Virginia  fields,  but  also  in  Baltimore,  he  labored  earnestly 
and  well.  In  Baltimore  his  "zeal  and  progressiveness 
were  marked,  and  he  gained  an  honorable  place  in  the 
Conference  of  the  Baptist  Ministers  and  the  Maryland 
Association."  Under  his  leadership  the  Second  Church 
built  its  present  handsome  structure  on  the  corner  of 
Luzerne  and  Orleans  streets.  At  Onancock  he  was 
"popular  and  beloved,  though  he  pursued  his  work 
under  the  strain,  often,  of  serious  physical  debility." 
Before  the  end  of  his  life  and  labors  came  he  was  called 
on  to  pass  through  a  long  and  terrible  ordeal  of  pain.  It 
is  not  for  us  to  sit  in  judgment  concerning  his  death, 
which  was  caused  by  a  wound  inflicted  by  his  own  hand, 
but  we  may  well  give  our  sighs  and  pity  at  the  thought 
of  his  sufferings  and  anguish.  His  death  occurred  at 
the  Caswell  Hotel,  Baltimore. 

328 


WALTER  RHODES  329 

At  Louisville,  where  he  studied,  he  proved  himself 
diligent  and  successful,  and  he  carried  through  life  care- 
ful habits  as  to  his  sermon  preparation  and  other  work. 
Before  going  to  Louisville  he  had  been  in  the  accounting 
department  of  the  Baltimore  &  Ohio  Railway,  where  he 
gained  a  good  knowledge  of  business  life.  He  was  "a 
clear,  systematic,  vigorous,  and  effective  preacher,  and 
possessed  high  evangelistic  gifts.  Many  weak  and  wan- 
dering souls  were  reclaimed  and  many  rejoicing  converts 
were  led  to  Christ  through  his  persuasive  and  convincing 
appeals.  As  a  close  and  devout  student  of  God's  word, 
and  a  clear,  fresh,  accurate,  and  discriminating 
expounder  of  it,  few  men  of  his  age  surpassed  him.  His 
book  of  observations  and  reflections,  while  not  of  sus- 
tained and  equal  merit  throughout,  has  many  pages  in  it 
that  do  him  honor,  and  has  commanded  high  commenda- 
tion from  an  eminent  critic  in  England.  While  living  in 
Baltimore  he  wrote  a  series  of  articles  which  appeared  in 
the  Sun  and  which  attracted  much  attention  in  religious 
circles."  He  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Evelyn  Hard- 
wick,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Alvin  Hardwick,  of  Westmore- 
land County.  She  and  a  son  and  daughter  survived  him. 
On  the  Sunday  before  his  death  he  preached  an  unusually 
strong  sermon  from  the  words :  "Things  which  eye  saw 
not  and  ear  heard  not  and  which  entered  not  into  the 
heart  of  man,  whatsoever  things  God  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him."  I  Cor.  2:9.  At  the  funeral  Rev.  Dr. 
H.  A.  Griesemer,  who  conducted  the  service,  based  his 
remarks  on  this  verse.  Mr.  Rhodes  passed  away  Tues- 
day, March  5,  1912,  in  the  forty-first  year  of  his  life. 
Rev.  L.  M.  Ritter,  the  present  pastor  of  the  Onancock 
Church,  says  of  Mr.  Rhodes:  "The  people  here  tell  me 
he  was  a  very  strong  preacher."  Mr.  Rhodes  was  a 
Royal  Arch  Mason. 


JAMES  E.  JONES 
1841-1912 

At  the  close  of  one  of  the  services  of  the  Baptist 
General  Association  of  Virginia,  in  Petersburg,  Novem- 
ber, 1904,  one  of  the  younger  pastors,  Rev.  W.  Thorburn 
Clark,  who  was  about  to  go  to  the  pastorate  of  Beaver 
Dam,  one  of  the  churches  of  the  Portsmouth  Association, 
felt  a  touch  upon  his  shoulder.  He  turned  and  looked, 
for  the  first  time,  into  the  face  of  Rev.  James  E.  Jones. 
The  older  pastor  had  sought  the  younger  one  to  welcome 
him  to  his  new  field,  for  their  churches  were  near  each 
other.  This  little  but  gracious  act  showed  the  character 
of  the  man,  who,  before  his  death  came,  had  been  pastor, 
for  a  long  period,  of  four  churches  in  his  Association. 
These  churches  were  South  Quay,  Sycamore,  Holland's 
Corner,  and  Jerusalem.  Two  of  these  bodies,  Holland's 
Corner  and  Sycamore,  organized  by  him  in  1880  and 
1878,  had  him  as  their  pastor  for  some  thirty  and  thirty- 
three  years.  His  ministry  at  South  Quay  reached 
through  about  twenty-seven  years,  having  begun  in  1885. 
His  service  at  Jerusalem  ran  from  1880  to  1904.  South 
Quay  was  the  church  of  his  childhood,  and  it  was  here, 
after  his  student  days  at  Richmond  College  and  the  Uni- 
versity were  over,  that  he  was  ordained  to  the  ministry. 
His  retirement  from  the  pastorate  of  the  South  Quay 
Church  a  short  time  before  his  death,  on  account  of 
declining  health,  led  to  the  adoption,  by  the  church,  of 
resolutions  expressing  their  devotion  to  him.  These 
resolutions  declared  that  their  retiring  pastor  left  monu- 
ments to  his  usefulness  in  South  Quay,  Jerusalem,  Syca- 
more, and  Holland's  Corner,  the  two  last-named  points 

330 


JAMES  E.  JONES  331 

having  come,  under  his  guidance,  from  bush-arbor 
appointments  to  strong  and  influential  churches.  The 
resolutions  spoke  of  him  as  eloquent  in  the  pulpit,  gifted 
in  prayer,  kind  and  sympathetic  in  pastoral  labors,  one 
who  bound  his  people  to  him  by  love. 

On  Monday,  April  1,  1912,  about  seven  in  the  even- 
ing, at  his  home  near  South  Quay,  Nansemond  County, 
in  the  seventy-second  year  of  his  age,  after  a  week's  ill- 
ness, he  passed  from  the  scenes  of  earth  to  his  heavenly 
reward.  The  funeral  took  place  the  following  Wednes- 
day afternoon  at  South  Quay  Church,  being  conducted 
by  Rev.  J.  L.  McCutcheon,  of  Franklin,  who  was 
assisted  by  several  pastors  of  other  denominations.  The 
body  was  laid  to  rest  beside  that  of  his  wife,  who  pre- 
ceded him  to  the  grave  some  twenty  years.  His  brother 
and  sister,  Mr.  Mack  Jones  and  Mrs.  Gary  Beale,  survive 
him,  and  also  seven  of  his  children,  namely :  Mrs.  Hugh 
Lawrence,  Mr.  J.  Paul  Jones,  Mrs.  Randall  Rawls, 
Mrs.  Percy  Vaughan,  Mr.  Philip  Jones,  Mr.  William 
Jones,  and  Mrs.  J.  M.  Robertson. 


JOHN  ROBERT  WILKINSON 
1842-1912 

Not  many  miles  from  Richmond  City  is  Dover  Mines, 
Goochland  County.  At  this  place  John  Robert  Wilkin- 
son was  born  June  21,  1842,  his  parents  being  Hezekiah 
and  Mary  Ford  Wilkinson.  From  the  best  primary 
schools  of  his  native  county  he  passed  to  the  Huguenot 
High  School,  hoping  next  to  go  to  Washington  College, 
now  Washington  and  Lee  University,  but  in  this  his 
hopes  were  shattered  by  the  War.  From  March,  1862, 
when  he  enlisted,  until  the  end  of  the  conflict,  he 
remained  in  the  ranks.  After  the  surrender,  having 
taken  up  farming,  on  August  24,  1865,  at  Goochland 
(Nuckols')  Church,  under  the  preaching  of  Rev.  A.  E. 
Dickinson,  he  professed  faith  in  Christ  and  was  baptized 
into  the  fellowship  of  Dover  Church  by  Rev.  A.  B. 
Smith.  Before  long  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  but  it  was 
not  until  after  his  removal  from  Powhatan  and  until  four 
years  after  his  marriage,  on  January  19,  1870,  to  Miss 
Adah  Winfree,  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  D.  B.  W^infree, 
that  he  decided  to  give  himself  to  the  gospel  ministry. 
Jerusalem  Church,  Chesterfield  County,  where  he  was 
ordained,  November  29,  1874,  the  presbytery  consisting 
of  the  ministers  D.  B.  Winfree,  W.  S.  Bland,  J.  R. 
Bagby,  R.  W.  Cridlin,  and  L.  W.  Moore,  was  his  first 
charge.  His  work  as  a  preacher  was,  in  the  main,  with 
churches,  first  in  the  Middle  District,  and  then  in  the 
Dover,  Association.  On  July  4,  1903,  he  organized,  in 
Louisa  County,  the  Mineral  Church,  and  in  November, 
1906,  he  dedicated  the  imposing  meeting-house  that  this 
congregation,  under  his  leadership,  had  erected.  This 

332 


JOHN  ROBERT  WILKINSON  333 

church,  which  at  its  organization  had  twenty-one  mem- 
bers, reports  now  an  enrollment  of  one  hundred  and  fifty- 
seven.  During  the  whole  course  of  his  ministry  he 
served,  besides  those  already  named,  the  following 
churches:  Skinquarter,  Tomahawk,  Berea,  Hopeful, 
Mt.  Olivet,  Ashland,  Winns,  Mt.  Gilead,  Branch's, 
Arbor,  and  Deep  Run. 

After  a  long  and  painful  illness,  on  April  9,  1912,  he 
passed  away.  The  funeral  was  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr. 
J.  B.  Hutson,  who  was  assisted  by  other  ministers,  and 
the  body  was  laid  to  rest  near  the  Mineral  Church.  His 
second  wife,  who  was,  before  her  marriage,  Miss  Emily 
F.  Bowles,  of  Hanover  County,  and  three  children  sur- 
vive him.  Rev.  T.  A.  Hall,  in  his  obituary  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  General  Association,  says  of  him :  "There 
was  a  bewitching  charm  about  his  striking  personality 
that  won  all  persons  with  whom  he  came  in  contact. 
An  ingenuous  suavity  of  spirit,  a  whole-hearted 
friendship,  a  stainless  life,  and  a  spotless  character,  com- 
bined with  signal  spiritual  vivacity,  great  love  for  Jesus 
Christ  and  for  lost  souls,  together  with  lofty  purposes 
in  living  and  in  doing,  constituted  the  prominent  charac- 
teristics of  his  noble  life  and  his  exalted  attainments." 


PATRICK  THOMAS  WARREN 
1839-1912 

On  the  walls  of  the  Onancock  Baptist  Church  are  tab- 
lets to  the  memory  of  Rev.  Patrick  Warren  and  his  wife, 
Elizabeth  Ann  Scott  Warren.  One  of  the  children  of 
this  pious  couple  was  Rev.  Patrick  T.  Warren.  In  him 
the  name  Patrick  had  come  down  to  the  third  generation, 
for  his  grandfather,  a  godly  Baptist  deacon,  had  borne 
this  name.  On  November  4,  1839,  in  Northampton 
County,  Patrick  Warren  III,  as  he  might  well  be  called, 
first  saw  the  light.  Through  the  private  schools  and  by 
the  help  of  his  uncle,  Mr.  Lewis  Warren,  he  was  prepared 
for  his  college  work,  which  was  done  at  William  and 
Mary  and  Richmond  College.  In  1861,  at  the  Onancock 
Baptist  Church,  he  was  ordained,  the  presbytery  being 
composed  of  Elders  Patrick  Warren,  George  Bradford, 
and  S.  C.  Boston.  This  young  man,  the  same  year  as 
his  ordination,  served  as  a  supply  for  the  Lower  North- 
ampton Church,  and,  in  1862,  became  her  pastor.  This 
good  man's  ministry,  which  began  thus  in  Virginia,  and 
was  to  come  to  its  close  on  the  soil  of  the  Old  Dominion, 
gave  many  of  its  years  to  work  in  other  States.  In  these 
years  away  from  Virginia  he  was  pastor  at  Salisbury, 
Cumberland,  Longwood,  and  twice  at  Vienna,  all  in 
Maryland ;  at  Mobile  and  Eufaula,  Alabama ;  and  at 
Watsontown,  Pennsylvania.  In  1885  he  was  once  more 
back  in  his  native  State,  his  field  at  this  time  lying  in  the 
territory  of  the  Portsmouth  and  Concord  Associations ; 
during  these  years  he  ministered  to  the  Fountain's  Creek, 
James'  Square,  Hicks  ford,  and  Zion  Churches.  From 
1890  to  1897  he  was  pastor  at  Williamsburg,  Va.  Upon 

334 


PATRICK  THOMAS  WARREN  335 

leaving  Williamsburg  he  moved  to  Pamplin  City,  which 
was  his  home  until  the  end  of  his  life.  During  a  part  of 
this  period  he  was  pastor  of  these  churches,  in  the  James 
River  and  Appomattox  Associations:  Liberty  Chapel, 
New  Hope,  Mathews,  and  Rocks.  He  was  deeply  inter- 
ested, not  only  in  the  life  of  his  own  churches,  but  in  the 
prosperity  and  growth  of  all  the  churches  of  his  Associa- 
tions. He  was  moderator  of  the  Appomattox  Associa- 
tion and  the  preacher  of  the  sermon  when  this  body  cele- 
brated its  centennial.  During  his  life  in  Appomattox  a 
Pastors'  Conference  was  organized,  and  he  was  made  its 
president.  For  some  years  before  the  end  of  his  life  he 
gave  up  active  pastoral  work,  but  up  to  the  close  of  1911 
he  continued  to  respond  to  all  requests  for  occasional  or 
supply  sermons,  whether  they  came  from  Baptists  or 
from  other  denominations.  A  few  weeks  before  his 
death  he  was  paralyzed,  and  this  event  making  him 
realize  that  death  was  near  at  hand,  he  "set  his  house  in 
order,"  even  giving  directions  for  his  burial.  At  ten 
o'clock  Friday  morning,  May  31,  1912,  surrounded  by 
his  family,  he  passed  away.  His  body  was  laid  to  rest 
in  the  cemetery  of  the  Liberty  Baptist  Church,  Appo- 
mattox, the  services  being  conducted  by  Rev.  C.  R. 
Norris,  Rev.  Dr.  H.  C.  Smith,  and  Rev.  Dr.  W.  J.  Ship- 
man.  The  wife,  whose  married  life  had  extended  over 
some  forty-four  years,  and  who,  before  her  marriage, 
was  Miss  Mary  A.  Price  (daughter  of  Dr.  William  R. 
and  Susan  Denmead  Price),  of  Baltimore  County,  Mary- 
land, survived  her  husband,  with  her  three  daughters, 
Mary  Houston,  Hannah  Denmead,  and  Odelle  Austin 
(Mrs.  Milledge  L.  Bonham),  and  one  son,  Luther  Rice 
Warren. 

Patrick  Thomas  Warren  was  a  man  remarkable  for  his 
courtesy,  for  his  systematic  habits,  for  his  painstaking 
care  as  to  little  things.  He  was  always  scrupulously  neat 


336         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

in  his  dress  and  person,  and  his  horse  and  buggy  showed 
that  almost  equal  thought  had  been  bestowed  upon  them. 
A  poorly  groomed  horse,  or  a  buggy  not  clean  and  well 
cared  for,  would  have  vexed  him  no  little.  In  the  keep- 
ing of  his  books  and  papers  and  his  house  and  lot,  a 
similar  interest  was  manifested;  it  was  his  pride  to  show 
his  friends  his  fine  tomatoes,  held  up  by  proper  frames, 
and  the  other  good  things  in  his  garden.  Not  only  in 
things  that  concerned  himself,  but  as  well  in  what 
touched  the  lives  of  others,  was  he  interested  to  see  that 
the  little  points  were  watched.  Life  is  made  up  of  little 
things,  but  life  is  no  little  thing.  Concerning  his  real 
piety  and  conscientious  devotion  to  duty  there  is  no  need 
that  words  be  spoken,  for  on  that  matter  the  whole  of 
his  useful  life  throws  clear  light. 


THOMAS  HUME,  JR. 
1836-1912 

In  1806  Rev.  Thomas  Hume,  of  Edinburgh,  Scotland, 
came  to  Virginia  to  represent  the  Scotch  heirs  of  Rev. 
Robert  Dickson,  his  uncle.  A  little  later  his  brother, 
Rev.  William  Hume,  followed  him  to  Virginia.  The 
Hon.  Hugh  Blair  Grigsby  bore  testimony  to  the  scholarly 
ability  of  the  two  brothers,  declaring  that  William  Hume 
was  the  ''finest  Grecian  he  had  known."  By  reason  of 
the  "law's  delay,"  Thomas  was  detained  some  time  in 
Virginia,  and  finally  married  and  settled  in  Smithfield, 
Isle  of  Wight  County.  Here  his  only  child,  Thomas,  was 
born,  March  16,  1812.  This  second  Thomas,  known 
among  Virginia  Baptists  as  Dr.  Thomas  Hume,  Senior, 
married,  in  1835,  Miss  Mary  Anne  Gregory,  a  member 
of  an  old  and  honored  family,  and  a  teacher  in  the 
Trinity  Episcopal  Sunday  School  of  Portsmouth.  Of 
the  eight  children  of  this  union  the  oldest  was  named 
Thomas.  This  third  Thomas  Hume  is  known  as  Dr. 
Thomas  Hume,  Junior.  He  was  born,  at  his  father's 
home  in  Portsmouth,  Va.,  October  21,  1836.  For  a  full 
story  of  the  life  of  Dr.  Thomas  Hume,  Senior,  the  reader 
is  referred  to  the  "Lives  of  Virginia  Baptist  Ministers," 
Third  Series,  where  the  son  pays  a  beautiful  and  deserved 
tribute  to  his  honored  father.  Suffice  it  here  to  say  that 
Dr.  Thomas  Hume,  Senior,  besides  being  for  many 
years  the  distinguished  pastor  of  the  Court  Street  Bap- 
tist Church  of  Portsmouth,  was  one  of  the  leading 
citizens  of  that  city,  where  he  was  able,  not  only  to  care 
for  the  interests  of  his  own  flock,  but  also  to  be  president 
of  an  insurance  company,  County  Superintendent  of 
Education,  president  of  a  Provident  Society,  and  con- 

337 


338         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

suiting  director  of  the  Seaboard  Railroad.  Nor  was 
his  influence  limited  by  the  Elizabeth  River,  for  he  was 
at  one  time  pastor  in  Norfolk.  And  his  leadership 
reached  out  to  the  work  of  the  denomination  in  the 
State.  In  this  home,  with  its  pious  and  literary  atmos- 
phere and  traditions,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born. 
After  studying  at  the  Virginia  Collegiate  Institute,  of 
Portsmouth,  he  entered  Richmond  College  at  the  age  of 
fifteen,  and  graduated  there,  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts,  in  1855,  the  other  members  of  the  class  being 
Peter  W.  Ferrell,  Halifax,  Va.,  and  Wm.  S.  Ryland, 
Richmond,  Va.  From  Richmond  College  he  went  to  the 
University  of  Virginia,  where  he  remained  three  years 
and  took  a  number  of  the  "school"  diplomas.  Through 
the  pen  of  Rev.  Dr.  John  L.  Johnson  we  see  Mr.  Hume 
as  he  was  in  the  fall  of  1856,  when  he  entered  the  Uni- 
versity, and  when  he  and  Dr.  Johnson  met  for  the  first 
time.  Dr.  Johnson  says:  "In  person  he  was  of  small 
stature,  of  less  than  average  height,  and  very  delicately 
made.  Slightly  curling  auburn  hair  fell  upon  his 
shoulders ;  a  massive  brow,  broad  and  deep,  under  which 
gray-blue  eyes  shone  with  unusual  brightness,  gave  to  his 
full  face  a  wedge-like  contour ;  and  over  all  was  a  lurk- 
ing humorous  cast,  which,  even  in  pensive  moods,  made 
his  expression  interesting  and  magnetic.  Poor  health 
was  his  misfortune;  chronic  indigestion  was  his  mortal 
foe.  Days  at  a  time  he  lay  in  bed,  racked  with  pain,  and 
smilingly  receiving  the  loving  ministry  of  his  fellow- 
students.  An  ardent  Christian,  in  spite  of  this  physical 
weakness,  he  was  to  be  found  habitually  at  his  church, 
Sunday  school  and  preaching  services,  and  in  the  Sun- 
day afternoon  prayer-meeting  of  the  students."  He 
belonged  to  that  interesting  group  of  students  in  which 
number  were  H.  H.  Harris,  J.  William  Jones,  J.  C. 
Hiden,  L.  J.  Haley,  James  B.  Taylor,  Jr.,  and  John  L. 


THOMAS  HUME,  JR.  339 

Johnson,  and  with  some  of  them  he  formed  a  happy  bond 
between  Richmond  College  and  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia. The  first  college  Young  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion in  the  world  was  organized  at  the  University  of 
Virginia,  and  Mr.  Hume  was  its  first  secretary  and  its 
second  president.  He  was  also  one  of  the  magazine 
editors. 

Scarcely  had  Mr.  Hume  entered  upon  his  work  as 
Professor  of  Latin  and  English  in  the  Chesapeake  Col- 
lege, Hampton,  Va.  (an  institution  which  had  been 
rescued  a  few  years  before,  by  Mr.  Hume's  father,  from 
purchase  by  the  Catholics),  when  the  War  called  him 
from  the  teacher's  chair  to  the  camp  and  the  line  of 
march.  He  had  already  felt  the  call  to  preach,  and  now 
he  became  chaplain  of  the  Third  Regiment  Virginia 
Infantry.  Later  he  was  made  post  chaplain  at  Peters- 
burg, where  he  remained  as  official  chaplain  of  the  Con- 
federate Hospitals  during  the  siege  of  the  city  and  until 
the  surrender  at  Appomattox.  On  June  5,  1865,  at  the 
close  of  the  session  of  the  Baptist  General  Association 
of  Virginia,  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  Va., 
he  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry.  On  this  occasion 
the  sermon  was  preached  by  J.  B.  Jeter,  the  ordaining 
prayer  made  by  Wm.  F.  Broaddus,  the  charge  delivered 
by  J.  L.  Burrows,  the  hand  of  fellowship  given  by 
J.  William  Jones,  and  the  Bible  presented  by  Geo.  B. 
Taylor.  For  the  score  of  years  that  followed  this  event, 
Mr.  Hume  gave  himself  to  teaching  and  to  preaching, 
a  part  of  this  period  both  of  these  lines  of  service  receiv- 
ing at  the  same  time  his  thought.  For  a  short  season  he 
supplied  the  pulpit  of  the  First  Church,  Petersburg,  and 
then  became  Principal  of  the  Petersburg  Classical  Insti- 
tute, giving  his  Sabbaths  to  country  churches  in  Sussex 
and  Chesterfield  Counties.  On  June  29,  1867,  in  company 
with  Dr.  William  D.  Thomas,  Dr.  J.  W.  M.  Williams, 


340         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Dr.  G.  W.  Samson,  Dr.  J.  L.  M.  Curry  and  bride,  and 
others,  he  sailed  from  New  York  for  a  trip  to  Europe. 
His  next  work  was  in  Danville,  where  he  was  Principal 
of  the  Roanoke  Female  College,  and  for  two  years  pastor 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church.  It  was  only  after  long  con- 
sideration that  he  decided  to  turn  from  his  teaching  to 
take  charge  of  this  church,  but  when  the  question  was 
settled  "he  became  at  once  a  busy  pastor,  looking  system- 
atically after  the  membership  of  the  church  and  making 
most  careful  preparations  for  the  pulpit.  He  was  indeed 
a  fine  preacher;  language  simple  and  chaste,  thought 
strong  and  penetrating,  illustrated  richly  from  the  broad 
fields  of  his  reading ;  voice  clear  and  incisive,  face  aglow 
with  the  passion  of  the  hour,  made  him  a  speaker  good 
to  listen  to  and  easy  to  learn  from."  In  1874  his  father's 
death  called  him  back  to  his  old  home,  and  he  was  invited 
to  succeed  his  father  in  the  pastorate  of  the  Cumberland 
Street  (later  known  as  the  First)  Baptist  Church,  of 
Norfolk.  This  position  he  held  till  1878,  when  he 
became  Professor  of  Latin  and  English  in  the  Norfolk 
College.  In  the  same  year  he  was  married  to  Miss  Annie 
Louise  Whitescarver,  a  daughter  of  Rev.  W.  A.  Whites- 
carver,  and  remarkable  for  her  beauty  of  person  and 
face.  In  June,  1881,  Dr.  Hume  was  the  Richmond  Col- 
lege Alumni  Poet.  While  a  broken-down  engine  pre- 
vented his  being  present  to  read  his  poem  alumni  night, 
he  did  read  it  on  the  Wednesday  night  of  the  Commence- 
ment. The  poem,  the  subject  of  which  was  "Walking 
With  God,"  instituted  a  comparison  between  Enoch  and 
Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter. 

In  1885  Dr.  Hume  became  Professor  of  English 
Language  and  Literature  in  the  University  of  North 
Carolina.  He  filled  this  chair  for  twenty-two  years,  and 
in  this  capacity  probably  did  the  best  work  of  his  life. 
It  is  certain  that  he  was  most  highly  fitted  to  be  a  teacher, 


THOMAS  HUME,  JR.  341 

yet  he  had  elements  that  go  to  the  making  of  the  success- 
ful pastor.  If  a  warm,  genial  heart  and  an  intense 
human  interest  in  people  gave  him  power  in  the  class- 
room, surely  this  same  marked  factor  in  his  character 
would  have  become,  in  the  sphere  of  the  church,  the 
"shepherd  heart/'  He  threw  into  his  work  as  a  teacher 
a  zeal  and  enthusiasm  and  love  that  quickened  in  his 
students  a  kindred  fire  and  a  spirit  of  painstaking  work. 
His  appreciation  of  the  true  and  the  beautiful  in  litera- 
ture was  at  once  keen  and  accurate.  He  seemed  to  know 
almost  as  if  by  instinct  what  was  really  fine  in  prose  and 
poetry,  and  those  who  followed  his  taste  and  leadership 
were  sure  to  drink  of  the  purest  waters.  Letters  from 
many  of  his  old  students  record  his  patient  and  kindly 
work  with  them,  not  only  in  their  studies,  but  in  the  prob- 
lems of  their  personal  and  religious  life.  At  his  death, 
one  of  these  students  wrote  of  him,  in  a  Southern  paper : 

"Many  old  students  are  anxious  to  testify  that  he 
opened  up  to  them  vistas  of  things  undreamed  of  before; 
that  he  helped  them  on  in  paths  that  have  been  so  pleasant 
and  so  inspiring  in  after-life;  that  he  interpreted  the 
vision  of  the  'light  that  never  was  on  sea  or  land'  so 
that  it  has  illumined  many  a  dark  hour;  that  he  lifted 
them  up  and  introduced  them  to  the  masters,  who  have 
inspired,  cheered,  and  comforted,  oh!  so  many  hours 
since ;  that  his  outlines  of  the  Great  Plan  are  coming  out 
largely  as  he  sought  to  make  plain  to  young,  mobile,  and 
impressionable  minds;  that  he  was  nobly  unselfish 
through  it  all,  and  their  appreciation  is  unstinted." 

Mr.  E.  K.  Graham,  formerly  Professor  of  English, 
now  President  of  the  University  of  North  Carolina, 
writing  of  his  work,  on  his  retirement,  said,  in  part : 

"When  Dr.  Hume  came  to  the  University,  conditions 
surrounding  teaching  in  the  State  were  not  so  favorable 


342         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

as  they  are  now.  They  were  especially  unfavorable  to 
the  teaching  of  English  Literature.  ...  In  the  face 
of  the  difficulties  which  confront  every  teacher  of  the 
aesthetic,  and  the  peculiar  difficulties  that  confronted  him, 
Dr.  Hume  wrought  at  his  task  of  teaching  the  master- 
pieces of  literature  with  the  zeal  of  a  prophet.  Litera- 
ture (whenever  he  wrote  the  word  he  capitalized  it)  was 
to  him  not  a  chance  profession;  it  was  a  religious  faith. 
The  beauty  he  found  there  was  not  the  sentimentalism  of 
a  cult;  it  was  the  gift  of  God,  coequal  with  truth  and 
goodness — the  heavenly  light  that  was  the  consecration 
of  the  monotonous  struggle  to  get  on.  .  .  .  During 
most  of  the  years  in  which  he  served  the  State,  Dr. 
Hume,  in  his  field,  worked  almost  alone — alone,  in  what 
was  by  all  odds  the  largest  department  in  the  University. 
He  placed  but  one  limit  on  the  number  of  courses  he 
taught,  and  that  was  the  number  of  hours  in  the  day. 
Day  and  night  he  gave  himself  to  active  instruction.  In 
addition,  he  organized  Shakespeare  clubs  out  in  the 
State,  lectured  in  summer  schools,  preached  in  churches; 
in  fact,  put  no  reserve  whatever  upon  his  time  or 
strength.  It  was  a  matter  of  everyday  wonder  how  so 
frail  a  man  had  the  burden-bearing  power  of  a  superman. 
But  here  was  the  simple  secret:  to  him  it  was  not  a 
burden,  but  a  joy.  It  gave  him  the  chance  to  teach ! 

"Besides  the  influence  that  Dr.  Hume  exerted  on  all 
his  students,  on  the  thousands  of  people  with  whom  he 
came  in  contact  in  his  extension  work  and  through  his 
preaching,  he  made  other  leaders  of  sweetness  and  light 
in  whose  work  his  influence  is  especially  obvious.  Many 
successful  teachers — themselves  makers  of  teachers — 
many  successful  preachers  and  lawyers,  have  added  a 
grace  to  their  lives  that  was  kindled  at  the  torch  he  bore. 
He  was  never  a  writer  of  books,  but  he  was  a  maker  of 
writers  of  books.  A  half-dozen  books  come  to  my  mind 


THOMAS  HUME,  JR.  343 

in  which  he  was  in  this  indirect  way  a  joint  author. 
.  As  a  teacher  of  men  it  was  given  him  to  subdue 
the  petty  tyranny  of  time  and  space.  Is  it  not  possible 
to  say  simply  and  with  certitude  about  such  a  teacher, 
that  life  gives  to  him  her  greatest  gift;  that  even  while 
he  lives  immortality  becomes  to  him  a  visible,  a  realized 
fact?" 

At  Glen  Falls,  N.  Y.,  and  at  Knoxville,  Tenn.,  he  gave 
courses  at  summer  schools,  while  he  delivered  series  of 
lectures  on  Shakespeare,  Tennyson,  and  the  Literary 
Study  of  the  Bible  before  schools  and  clubs  and  Bible 
assemblies  in  various  parts  of  Virginia  and  North  Caro- 
lina. He  published  many  articles  and  addresses,  and 
during  the  last  months  of  his  life  was  at  work  on  a  book 
on  the  development  of  the  English  Bible.  In  1907  he 
was  made  Emeritus  Professor  on  the  Carnegie  Founda- 
tion, being  the  first  educator  in  North  Carolina  to  receive 
this  appointment. 

Although  he  gave  up  regular  preaching  during  this 
last  twenty -odd  years  of  his  life,  he  did  not  give  up  his 
interest  in  his  church.  He  was  ever  a  most  active  and 
earnest  member  of  the  Chapel  Hill  Baptist  Church,  the 
right-hand  man  of  his  pastor,  active  in  the  Sunday 
school  and  the  B.  Y.  P.  U..  and  Sunbeam  Missionary 
Society,  ever  bearing  on  his  heart  and  mind  the  welfare 
of  the  church  and  his  pastor.  One  pastor  writes  thus : 
"It  was  my  honor  to  be  Dr.  Hume's  pastor  for  two  years, 
when  I  had  not  been  preaching  long.  The  way  he  treated 
me,  his  young  and  inexperienced  pastor,  was  character- 
istic of  the  man.  He  honored  me  as  his  pastor,  and  in 
scores  of  ways  was  courteous  to  me  and  considerate  of 
my  office,  as  well  as  of  my  comfort.  He  never  forgot 
those  little  amenities  which  always  help  to  tide  over  the 
rough  places,  especially  when  they  mark  the  manner  of  a 
man,  in  distinguished  place,  towards  one  far  less 


344         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

advanced  in  age  and  achievement.  If  he  made  sugges- 
tions as  to  sermon  structure,  or  as  to  the  work  of  the 
church,  it  was  done  with  marvelous  tact."  His  interest 
in  religious  work  was  not  limited  to  the  local  church, 
nor  to  his  own  denomination.  He  was  in  touch  with 
what  was  being  done  by  North  Carolina  and  Southern 
Baptists,  and  as  Superintendent  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work 
in  the  colleges  and  towns  of  North  Carolina,  as  well  as 
in  other  ways,  he  made  himself  felt  throughout  all  the 
State. 

Towards  the  end  he  was  a  sufferer.  On  July  15,  1912, 
he  passed  away  at  his  home  in  Chapel  Hill.  The  funeral 
and  burial  were  in  Waynesboro,  Va.  His  wife  and  three 
children,  Thomas  Hume,  Annie  Wilmer  (now  Mrs. 
William  Reynolds  Vance),  and  Miss  May  Gregory,  sur- 
vive him. 


JOSEPH  R.  GARLICK 
1825-1912 

One  of  the  delegates  to  the  "Virginia  Baptist  Anniver- 
saries" (as  the  general  State  gathering  was  then  called), 
in  Norfolk,  1852,  was  "Joseph  R.  Garlick.  In  1856  he 
was  one  of  the  life  members  of  the  General  Association, 
and  on  through  the  years,  until  his  death,  he  was  closely 
connected  with  the  work  of  the  denomination  in  Virginia. 
He  was  born  on  December  30,  1825,  in  King  William 
County,  Virginia.  After  his  early  training  in  neighbor- 
hood schools  he  entered,  in  1840,  the  Virginia  Baptist 
Seminary  (now  Richmond  College),  where  he  continued 
till  the  fall  of  1841,  when  he  became  a  student  at  Colum- 
bian College,  Washington.  Here  he  graduated  in  1843. 
For  a  season  he  now  became  a  teacher,  his  first  experi- 
ence as  a  pedagogue  being  at  Lancaster  Court  House. 
One  of  his  pupils,  a  youth  four  years  his  junior,  named 
Thomas  S.  Dunaway,  still  abides  among  us,  in  his  vener- 
able age,  after  a  long  and  a  most  honored  career  of 
service  among  Virginia  Baptists.  Upon  the  death  of  his 
former  schoolmaster,  Dr.  Dunaway  wrote  tender  and 
loving  words  concerning  him,  describing  him  as  "a  man 
of  fine  literary  taste  and  acquirements  and  broad  scholar- 
ship," and  recalling  the  fact  that  Dr.  Jeter  had  once 
suggested  to  Dr.  Garlick  that  he  prepare  a  lexicon  of  the 
English  language. 

After  studying  theology  under  Rev.  Dr.  Andrew 
Broaddus,  the  elder,  he  was  ordained,  in  December,  1847. 
His  first  charge  was  at  Hampton,  Va.,  and  here  he 
remained  four  years.  After  teaching  for  two  years  in 
the  Chowan  Female  Institute,  Murfreesboro,  N.  C.,  he 

345 


346         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

moved,  in  1855,  to  Bruington,  King  and  Queen  County, 
where  he  established  the  Rappahannock  Female  Institute, 
over  which  he  presided  for  fourteen  years.  For  a  decade 
of  this  period  at  Bruington  he  was  pastor  of  St. 
Stephen's  Church,  in  the  same  county.  In  1870  he  was 
called  to  succeed  Rev.  A.  E.  Dickinson  as  pastor  of  the 
Leigh  Street  Baptist  Church,  Richmond.  This  relation- 
ship continued  some  nine  years,  and  that  the  work  pros- 
pered is  seen  from  the  fact  that  in  1869  the  church 
reported  544  members,  and,  in  1879,  no  less  than  896. 
Upon  leaving  Richmond  and  Leigh  Street  he  returned  to 
a  country  pastorate  and  to  the  section  where  he  had 
already  spent  many  years.  Once  more  he  became  pastor 
of  St.  Stephen's  Church,  and  later,  also,  of  Mt.  Zion 
and  Lower  King  and  Queen.  After  some  nine  or  ten 
years  here,  he  passed  to  the  Dover  Association,  taking 
charge  of  that  historic  church  now  known  as  Winn's, 
but  first,  and  until  1833,  called  Chickahominy,  and  then 
Bethlehem  until  1870,  when  the  present  name  was 
chosen.  In  the  historical  sermon  that  Dr.  Garlick 
preached,  in  November,  1901,  the  year  "Winn's"  was  one 
hundred  and  twenty  years  old,  he  explained  why  the 
name  of  the  church  was  changed  from  Chickahominy  to 
Bethlehem,  and  then  to  "Winn's."  In  1833,  at  the  time 
of  the  Campbellite  excitement,  the  Chickahominy  Church 
was  excluded  from  the  Association  because  many  of  its 
members  held  unbaptistic  views.  The  rest  of  the  church 
went  on,  simply  adopting  the  new  name.  By  1870  there 
were  so  many  churches  called  "Bethlehem"  that  the  name 
of  the  man  who  had  given  the  site  for  the  meeting-house 
was  chosen,  since  it  was  more  distinctive. 

As  has  already  been  seen,  Dr.  Garlick  was  a  scholar 
and  a  student.  Three  years  after  his  graduation  at 
Columbian  he  received,  "in  course,"  his  M.  A.  degree, 
and  while  he  was  pastor  in  Richmond,  Richmond  College 


JOSEPH  R.  GARLICK  347 

conferred  on  him  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  For 
some  years  he  was  a  trustee  of  Richmond  College,  where 
he  "brought  the  ripe  experience  of  his  teaching  life  to 
bear  on  the  adjustment  of  many  educational  problems." 
For  several  years  he  was  professor  in  the  Richmond 
Female  Institute  and  the  Woman's  College  of  Rich- 
mond. For  five  years  he  was  President  of  the  State 
Mission  Board  of  the  General  Association.  His  married 
life  was  long  and  happy,  his  wife  having  been,  before 
her  marriage,  Miss  Sue  Morrison.  The  children  of  this 
marriage  were  Edward,  Lizzie,  Ellen  (Mrs.  Todd), 
Richard  Cecil,  and  Mary  Atwood.  Full  of  years  and  full 
of  honors,  Dr.  Garlick  passed  away  August  13,  1912. 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER 
1834-1912 

Those  who  knew  Dr.  Hatcher  in  his  manhood  and 
ministry  days  were  very  apt  to  learn  that  Bedford 
County  was  his  birthplace,  for  he  was  proud  of  his  native 
county,  a  county  that  has  produced  many  preachers.  The 
Peaks  of  Otter,  at  whose  foot  his  early  days  were  spent, 
he  called  "my  mountain,"  and  the  tall  summit  seemed  to 
speak  to  the  boy  of  God  and  heaven.  His  only  memory 
of  his  mother  was  her  funeral,  for  the  day  he  was  four 
years  old  she  was  laid  to  rest  under  the  old  cherry  tree 
back  of  the  garden.  He  felt,  through  life,  how  much  he 
had  missed  in  not  knowing  a  mother's  love,  and  his 
sympathy  and  interest  in  boys  was  testimony  to  the  lack 
in  his  own  life.  His  father  was  fifty  years  his  senior, 
but  the  boy  loved  him  with  strong  devotion,  and,  after 
the  mother's  death,  for  years  they  were  bed-fellows. 
The  father  was  greatly  distressed  because  this  son  seemed 
to  him  to  be  so  lazy.  It  was  true  that  the  young  fellow 
hated  to  "work  in  the  dirt."  The  father  predicted  that 
this  aversion  meant  that  he  would  .starve,  but  the  boy 
believed  that  in  some  other  way  he  would  make  his  living. 
So  serious  was  the  father's  distress  over  the  boy's  dis- 
inclination to  do  farm  work  that  he  told  his  cousin,  the 
future  Dr.  Jeter,  how  matters  stood,  and  that  the  boy, 
instead  of  working,  was  forever  reading.  The  boy,  who 
overheard  the  conversation,  was  keenly  mortified  to  see 
what  his  father  thought  of  him,  but  Dr.  Jeter's  view  of 
the  situation  was  less  grave,  and  his  advice  that  the  boy 
be  sent  to  school  was  eventually  followed.  The  family 
circle  consisted  of  the  children,  Henry,  Harvey,  William, 

348 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         349 

Damaris,  and  Margaret,  and  of  the  colored  folks,  Uncle 
Sam,  Aunt  Charity  and  Charlotte,  William  and  Harvey 
being  the  children  of  the  second  marriage.  Country  life 
in  Bedford  in  those  days  certainly  had  its  limitations. 
Later,  Dr.  Hatcher  thus  described  his  early  environment 
and  life:  "We  were  twelve  miles  from  the  county-seat, 
had  mail  once  a  week,  and  church  once  a  month  when  the 
weather  was  good.  A  blacksmith's  shop,  a  tanyard,  and 
a  store,  with  a  mill  further  on,  constituted  all  of  our 
public  interests.  As  I  had  no  horse  to  shoe,  no  letters  to 
write  or  receive,  not  a  copper  to  buy  anything  with,  and 
did  not  belong  to  the  church,  my  communication  with 
the  outer  world  amounted  to  naught.  This  statement 
was  modified  by  one  exception.  I  did  attain  to  the  honor 
of  being  a  mill  boy,  and  every  Saturday  morning  'Old 
Fillie'  was  bridled,  a  bag  of  corn  was  balanced  on  her 
back,  and  the  giant  arms  of  my  brother  hoisted  me 
astride  the  mare  and  bag,  and,  with  only  the  necessary 
garb,  in  warm  weather,  to  save  me  from  public  disgrace, 
I  jogged  my  way  over  to  Chilton's  Mill.  There  I  always 
had  an  interesting  time.  The  proprietor  of  the  mill  had 
a  most  unsavory  name  in  that  community,  but  he  was 
rich ;  he  had  quite  a  handsome  assortment  of  books, 
always  welcomed  me  into  his  office,  was  a  glib  and  capti- 
vating talker,  and  was  one  of  two  or  three  men  on  the 
earth  at  that  time  who  seemed  to  be  conscious  of  my 
existence  when  I  came  along."  The  boy  seems  to  have 
had  but  one  everyday  suit,  and  that  made  "of  the  wool 
taken  from  the  backs  of  our  sheep,  carded,  spun,  and 
woven  in  our  house,  dyed  with  ill-odored,  homemade 
dyes,  cut  out,  and  warranted  not  to  fit,  and  was  ugly  and 
unattractive,  and  usually  very  slow  to  wear  out."  The 
Sunday  school  of  the  neighborhood,  which  ran  from  the 
early  days  of  spring  until  the  end  of  the  summer,  was 
most  unattractive;  the  teachers  and  scholars  stammered 


350         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

through  long  chapters  of  the  Bible,  the  prayers  were 
long,  and  there  was  no  singing,  and  never  "a  breezy  and 
cheery  address." 

At  Mt.  Hermon  Church,  when  the  pastor,  Father 
William  Harris,  and  F.  M.  Barker,  a  man  of  great  elo- 
quence, were  conducting  a  meeting,  the  youth  was  con- 
verted. With  his  hand  in  the  kindly  grasp  of  Dr.  Falls, 
he  first  went  forward  when  "the  invitation"  was  given, 
and  later  came  out  into  the  full  light  of  joyful  surrender 
to  Christ,  under  the  gentle  guidance  of  Monroe  Hatcher. 
That  night,  when  the  two  brothers  reached  home,  the 
elder  son  went  in  to  where  Mr.  Hatcher  was  in  bed  and 
said:  "Father,  great  news  to-night — great  news;  your 
baby  boy  came  into  the  Kingdom  of  God."  It  may  have 
been  that  the  youth's  call  to  preach  came  that  day  when 
Father  Harris  laid  his  hand  on  his  head,  as  he  passed  the 
reading  boy,  and  said  he  hoped  he  would  be  a  minister  of 
the  gospel  some  day.  Later,  the  young  man's  greatest 
obstacle  to  entering  the  ministry  was  his  irresistible 
eagerness  to  do  so.  But  there  seemed  to  be  no  money 
for  an  education.  At  nineteen  he  began  to  teach,  and 
the  session,  it  was  arranged,  was  to  last  twelve  months 
and  the  salary  to  be  $300  and  board.  It  was  in  a  private 
family,  and  before  the  year  was  out  a  whipping  that  the 
young  pedagogue  administered  to  his  employer's  son 
broke  up  the  school  and  turned  the  teacher's  feet  towards 
college,  a  place  that  had  been  his  heart's  desire  for  no 
little  time.  With  him  went  his  older  brother,  Harvey. 
This  was  in  1854.  It  so  happened  that  the  young  man's 
first  Sunday  in  Richmond  was  the  first  Sunday  of  Dr. 
J.  L.  Burrows'  pastorate  at  the  First  Baptist  Church. 
With  wonder,  this  student  sat  in  the  gallery  and  heard 
the  new  preacher.  Such  crowds  he  had  never  seen 
before,  and  the  preacher  was  a  revelation  to  him.  He 
did  not  know  "that  God  made  men  like  that."  The  two 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         351 

brothers  who  came  together  to  Richmond  College  from 
the  mountains  of  Bedford  were  almost  wholly  unlike. 
Harvey  had  a  gift  for  mathematics  and  was  slow  of 
speech,  while  William  abominated  this  exact  science  and 
was  a  most  fluent  speaker.  In  June,  1858,  the  two 
Hatcher  brothers  graduated  from  the  college,  the  other 
members  of  the  class  being  Wm.  S.  Penick,  Samuel  H. 
Pulliam,  John  W.  Ryland,  and  Joseph  A.  Turner.  Be- 
fore his  college  course  was  finished,  young  Hatcher  had 
had  no  little  experience  in  preaching,  and  had  accepted 
a  call  to  his  first  church  and  pastorate.  His  first  sermon 
was  preached  in  Bedford,  the  only  word  concerning  it 
that  reached  the  preacher's  ears  being  the  remark  of  a 
countryman  that  he  had  gotten  "a  fair  night's  sleep  while 
that  fellow  was  talking."  During  one  of  his  vacations 
he  conducted  his  first  protracted  meeting,  the  call  for  this 
service  having  come  from  Father  Harris  at  Mt.  Hermon 
Church,  in  Bedford.  In  the  college,  one  session,  a  deep 
work  of  grace  blessed  the  whole  student  body,  many  of 
the  men  being  brought,  by  the  power  of  the  gospel,  to 
Christ  and  his  service.  In  this  work  William  E.  Hatcher 
was  one  of  the  leaders.  From  the  college  the  wave  of 
spiritual  power  moved  out  to  the  city,  and  the  young 
men  of  Grace  Street  Church  invited  Mr.  Hatcher  and 
James  B.  Taylor,  Jr.,  to  conduct  special  services  in  the 
basement  of  their  church.  This  work  was  rich  in  blessed 
fruit.  During  these  college  days  Mr.  Hatcher  preached 
at  least  once  for  Dr.  Ryland  at  the  First  African  Church, 
and  many  times,  without  money  and  without  price,  for 
the  feeble  Baptist  Church  in  Manchester,  just  across  the 
river  from  Richmond.  As  he  tramped  his  way  from  the 
college  to  Manchester,  and  back  to  the  college,  he  little 
dreamed  that  here  he  was  to  begin  his  career  as  a  pastor, 
but  it  was  even  so. 

On  the   fourth  Sunday  in  August,   1858,  he  became 
pastor  of  the  Manchester  Baptist  Church.     The  town 


352         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

was  far  from  inviting,  and  with  an  unenviable  reputation. 
Religion  in  the  town  seemed  to  languish,  and  several 
attempts  to  found  a  Baptist  Church  had  failed.  Finally 
the  erection  of  a  meeting-house  was  undertaken,  and 
before  it  was  completed  the  church  had  been  blessed  by 
the  short  but  earnest  ministry  of  Rev.  Z.  Jeter  George. 
Upon  his  death,  Mr.  Hatcher  was  called.  In  much 
depression  of  spirit,  and  yet  with  a  clear  conviction  as 
to  the  path  of  duty,  he  began  his  work.  Before  long  the 
congregations  began  to  grow,  there  were  conversions, 
and  the  burdensome  debt  on  the  meeting-house  was  paid. 
The  clouds  of  war  gathered  over  the  South,  and  Man- 
chester shared  with  her  sister  towns,  Petersburg  and 
Richmond,  many  of  the  horrors  and  sorrows  of  those 
awful  days.  Yet  during  these  nine  years  in  Manchester 
Mr.  Hatcher  was  growing  as  a  pastor  and  preacher. 
Already  he  was  beginning  to  go  out  into  the  country  for 
work  in  protracted  meetings,  a  field  in  which  he  was  to 
exert  such  a  mighty  influence  for  good,  in  an  ever- 
widening  area,  until  the  end  of  his  life.  On  March  17, 
1867,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Franklin  Square  Baptist 
Church,  Baltimore.  While  in  Baltimore  he  felt  the 
power  and  helpful  sympathy  of  Richard  Fuller,  the 
greatest  pulpit  orator  Southern  Baptists,  not  to  say  the 
South,  ever  had.  This  unique  man  called  on  the  new 
pastor  and  prayed  with  and  for  him  so  tenderly  that  the 
younger  man  never  forgot  the  visit;  he  also  urged  his 
members  in  that  part  of  the  city  to  unite  with  the 
Franklin  Square  Church.  After  a  brief  sojourn  in 
Baltimore,  Mr.  Hatcher  returned  to  Virginia,  becoming 
pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Petersburg.  During 
his  seven  years  in  Petersburg  his  church  grew  from  a 
membership  of  some  213  to  an  enrollment  of  some  442. 
Besides  meetings  of  power  in  his  own  field,  Mr.  Hatcher 
was  inspirational  along  missionary,  educational,  and 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         353 

evangelistic  lines  in  the  State  at  large.  While  pastor  in 
Petersburg  he  held  a  meeting  at  Shiloh,  a  church  which 
had  been  reported  at  the  District  Association  as  "dead," 
and  before  the  week  was  over  a  band  of  56  converts 
were  ready  for  the  reviving  of  the  old  church,  and  later 
a  fine  new  meeting-house  was  built.  During  his  pastor- 
ate in  Petersburg  the  famous  Memorial  Campaign  for 
Richmond  College  took  place,  in  which  campaign  Mr. 
Hatcher  was  a  leader.  He  was  a  member  of  the  com- 
mittee, appointed  by  the  General  Association  at  the 
session  in  Staunton,  June,  1872,  to  have  charge  of  this 
campaign,  and  at  this  same  meeting  he  preached  the 
introductory  sermon,  his  text  being:  "Christ  also  loved 
the  church 'and  gave  Himself  for  it"  (Eph.  5:25);  his 
theme  being:  "Christ's  Love  and  Labor  for  the  Church." 
Far  and  wide  he  went  throughout  the  State  telling  the 
story  of  the  struggles  of  Virginia  Baptists,  in  the  early 
days,  for  religious  liberty. 

On  the  fourth  Sunday  of  May,  1875,  Dr.  Hatcher 
began  his  pastorate  at  Grace  Street  Baptist  Church,  Rich- 
mond, a  pastorate  that  was  to  last  exactly  twenty-six 
years,  and  was  to  be  the  most  successful  and  important 
period  of  his  career.  He  succeeded,  at  Grace  Street,  Rev. 
Norvell  Wilson,  and  had  as  predecessors  in  this  field, 
James  B.  Taylor,  Sr.,  Jas.  B.  Jeter,  David  Shaver, 
Henry  Keeling,  and  Edward  Kingsford.  While  the 
church  was  a  strong  body,  with  some  625  members 
when  he  became  pastor,  and  a  noble  house  of  worship, 
still  it  grew  in  numbers  and  influence.  At  the  end  of 
the  twenty-six  years,  although  two  colonies  had  gone  out 
to  establish  new  churches,  the  mother  church  had  on  her 
roll  989  members.  Two  new  church  edifices  were  built, 
the  first  one  taking  the  place  of  the  house  that  had  stood 
and  served  for  many  years,  and  the  other  erected  after 
a  fire  had  destroyed,  in  a  few  hours,  the  new  church. 
From  year  to  year  protracted  meetings,  with  great 


354         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ingatherings,  came  to  be  the  normal  order  of  things,  and 
Dr.  Hatcher  declared  that  the  church  had  wonderful 
"spiritual  fecundity,"  and  that  it  "was  only  necessary  to 
watch  the  signs,  mark  the  season,  call  them  together,  and 
sound  the  gospel  trumpet,  and  the  work  began."  One 
of  the  unique  features  of  Dr.  Hatcher's  work  at  Grace 
Street  was  his  "boys'  meetings."  Every  Sunday  after- 
noon Dr.  Hatcher's  "boys"  met.  This  was  before  the 
days  of  B.  Y.  P.  U.  and  Junior  B.  Y.  P.  U.  and  Royal 
Ambassadors.  Yet  Dr.  Hatcher,  by  his  genial  person- 
ality, great  love  for  boys,  wonderful  tact  and  resourceful- 
ness, humor  and  power  of  organization,  led  the  boys  into 
glad  devotion  and  service  for  Christ  and  the  church. 
Once  a  year  the  main  audience  room  was  crowded  to  see 
and  hear  these  boys  render  a  programme  largely  prepared 
by  their  leader  and  pastor.  Out  of  this  band  came  many 
preachers  and  church  workers,  and,  when  the  need  arose, 
these  boys  raised  large  sums  of  money  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  old  or  the  building  of  thejiew  meeting-house. 
Great  congregations  were  the  order  of  the  day  at  Grace 
Street,  and  the  Sunday  school,  although  it  worked  in  a 
room  that  was  utterly  inadequate,  was  mighty  in  num- 
bers and  spirit.  Dr.  Hatcher,  in  some  respects,  grew  as 
a  preacher  until  tjie  end  of  his  life,  but  doubtless  he 
reached  his  zenith  of  pulpit  power  at  Grace  Street.  He 
was  a  great  preacher.  He  was  not  always  at  his  best — 
who  is? — but  Sunday  after  Sunday  his  sermons  were 
interesting,  helpful,  fruitful,  and  on  special  occasions 
and  at  other  times  he  often  spoke  with  convincing  and 
moving  power.  He  had  many  demands  on  his  time  that 
invaded  the  hours  for  sermon  preparation,  and  some 
accused  him  of  neglecting  his  study  and  his  Sunday 
messages,  but  this  was  not,  I  am  persuaded,  a  just  criti- 
cism. He  told  me  once  that  if  he  was  busy  all  the  week 
out  of  his  study,  on  legitimate  work,  the  Lord  helped  him 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         355 

Sunday,  but  if  he  failed  to  prepare  by  reason  of  laziness 
or  carelessness  the  help  from  above  did  not  seem  to  come. 
In  protracted  meetings  he  was  perhaps  at  his  best.  He 
enforced  his  arguments  and  carried  home  his  exhortation 
by  most  telling  illustrations.  Very  rarely  were  his  illus- 
trations ever  taken  from  history.  They  usually  came 
from  events  in  his  life  and  from  experiences  in  other 
lives  which  he  had  known.  The  Bible  was  the  other 
chief  treasury  from  which  his  illustrations  were  drawn. 
He  was  a  master  in  the  painting  of  word  pictures,  know- 
ing how  to  use  details  so  that  they  never  wearied,  but 
were  always  interesting.  He  rarely  quoted  poetry  in  his 
sermons,  and  probably  knew  little.  He  was  not,  in  the 
stricter  sense  of  the  terms,  a  great  student  or  a  great 
reader.  He  seemed  to  read  rather  for  recreation  and 
information  as  to  events  of  the  day  than  for  use  in 
preaching.  Yet  he  was  a  careful  and  thorough  thinker, 
and  his  mind  was  quick  and  well  trained.  He  once  said 
that  he  could  not  just  get  up  and  talk  without  having  a 
subject  and  an  objective  point.  Humor  played  a  part 
in  his  sermons  and  had  even  larger  room  in  his  platform 
addresses  and  speeches  on  various  occasions.  Yet  they 
are  mistaken  who  suppose  he  was  humorous  merely  to 
make  people  laugh.  With  him  humor  must  serve  a  moral 
purpose  or  be  counted  out  of  place.  He  was  not  a  teller 
of  funny  stories ;  indeed,  it  is  remarkable  how  few  anec- 
dotes leading  to  laughter  he  told.  His  humor  was  more 
natural,  more  spontaneous,  and  so  more  delightful.  It 
was  his  art  of  saying  things.  He  saw  things  from  new 
and  unexpected  angles  and  differently  combined.  If  in 
his  earlier  years  his  sense  of  humor  needed  curbing  when 
he  was  preaching,  in  his  later  years  he  never  offended  the 
most  exacting  taste  in  this  direction,  and  was  in  every 
way  dignified,  though  not  stern,  in  the  pulpit.  Some- 
times on  special  occasions,  when  much  was  expected  of 


356         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

him,  he  disappointed  hopes  that  had  been  raised.  This 
was  true  when  he  preached  the  Commencement  sermon  at 
the  University  of  Virginia.  The  night  was  warm,  the 
students,  with  young  ladies,  were  present  in  large  num- 
bers, and  several  bats  came  in  and  refused  to  go  out. 
Dr.  Hatcher  said  the  belles  and  the  bats  were  his  undoing. 
Certainly  such  disasters  were  rare  with  Dr.  Hatcher. 
Some  of  his  sermons  reached  the  high-water  mark  of 
pulpit  power.  This  was  true  of  his  sermon  before  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention  at  Nashville  in  1893.  His 
text  was  "Experience  worketh  hope,"  and  his  theme 
"The  Value  of  the  Experimental  Hope."  The  meeting 
hall  was  the  Ryerson  Auditorium,  not,  perhaps,  as 
favorable  a  place  for  a  sermon  as  a  church,  yet  with 
good  acoustic  properties.  The  sermon  was  heard  by  all 
the  great  audience,  produced  a  deep  impression,  and 
ranks  as  one  of  the  best  of  our  Convention  sermons. 
Dr.  Hatcher  did  not  have  a  clear  or  musical  voice,  and 
at  times  his  tones  were  not  clear,  yet  he  overcame 
this  handicap,  and  he  was  usually  heard  by  his  congrega- 
tion however  large  it  was.  In  speaking  of  this  sermon 
he  said  that  he  worked  on  several  texts  before  finally 
choosing  the  one  on  which  he  spoke.  In  his  opinion, 
many  Convention  sermons  failed  because  the  preachers 
had  no  clear-cut  idea  of  what  the  sermon  was  aiming  to 
accomplish. 

While  he  was  at  Grace  Street,  Dr.  Hatcher's  leadership 
in  the  work  of  Virginia  Baptists  grew.  Here  his  sphere 
widened  and  his  influence  in  the  affairs  of  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention  was  potent.  Within  the  ranks  of  his 
own  denomination  in  Virginia  he  held,  for  many  years, 
the  first  place.  What  movement  of  importance  came  to 
success  among  Virginia  Baptists  during  this  Grace  Street 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  yet  other  years,  which  did  not 
have  his  championship  and  leadership?  It  was  hard,  in 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         357 

all  these  years,  to  think  of  Ministerial  Education,  Rich- 
mond College,  the  Orphanage,  and  not  remember  Dr. 
Hatcher,  nor  did  he  fail  to  espouse  the  cause  of  State, 
Home,  and  Foreign  Missions.  If  a  church  was  to  be 
dedicated,  or  a  debt  paid,  or  a  great  anniversary  occasion 
celebrated,  Dr.  Hatcher's  presence  was,  if  possible, 
secured.  He  attended  our  District  Associations,  from 
the  Seaboard  to  the  Alleghanies,  rather  than  take  such  a 
vacation  as  many  city  pastors  do.  Other  States  besides 
Virginia  called  on  him  for  all  kinds  of  occasions,  and  he 
was  known,  not  only  in  the  South,  but  also  among  the 
Northern  Baptists.  At  one  of  the  most  trying  times  in 
the  history  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary 
he  was  recognized  as  a  leader  in  the  Board  of  Trustees 
and  on  the  floor  of  the  Convention,  and  it  was  he  who 
"discovered"  and  nominated  Dr.  E.  Y.  Mullins  for  the 
presidency  of  the  Seminary.  During  Dr.  Hatcher's  years 
at  Grace  Street  many  of  the  students  of  Richmond  Col- 
lege attended  his  church,  and  he  was  in  close  touch  with 
the  life  of  the  college,  and  the  students  saw  him  often 
in  his  hours  of  relaxation.  As  a  youth,  while  his  brother, 
Harvey,  had  been  devoted  to  hunting  and  the  fox  chase, 
such  sports  did  not  appeal  to  him.  At  one  season  of  his 
life  in  Richmond  he  was  much  given  to  the  game  of 
croquet,  and  from  afternoon  to  afternoon  Dr.  Harris, 
Dr.  Jeter,  Dr.  Hatcher,  some  of  the  students,  and  others, 
might  be  seen  on  the  college  campus  engaged  in  playing, 
with  great  earnestness,  this  game.  One  student  says 
that  a  certain  man,  who  was  known  to  have  cheated  in 
playing  in  this  circle,  when  afterwards  a  candidate  for 
some  position  of  trust,  failed  to  get  Dr.  Hatcher's  vote, 
since  he  regarded  the  game  as  a  fine  and  fair  test  of 
character. 

With  the  close  of  his  twenty-sixth  year  at  Grace  Street 
he  resigned  his  church  to  take  up  a  special  agency  work 


358         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

for  Richmond  College.  While  at  one  time,  during  the 
Grace  Street  pastorate,  there  was  a  serious  faction  in  the 
church  and  determined  opposition  to  him,  all  this  had 
passed  away  and  the  church  was  united  and  devotedly 
loyal  to  him  for  years  before  his  work  with  them  ended. 
About  this  time  he  became  interested  also  in  the  Fork 
Union  Academy,  in  Fluvanna  County.  After  his  five 
years  of  service  with  the  college  was  completed  he  gave 
much  of  his  time  and  thought  to  the  school  in  Fluvanna. 
Under  his  fostering  care  and  by  reason  of  his  enthusi- 
astic leadership  the  institution  came  rapidly  to  a.  position 
of  real  influence  and  service.  This  Academy,  the  boys, 
their  games,  their  physical  and  religious  welfare,  their 
studies,  had  large  place  in  his  thoughts  and  affections. 
By  this  time  he  had  sold  his  residence  in  Richmond,  608 
West  Grace  Street,  where  he  lived  for  many  years,  and 
had  made  "Careby  Hall,"  at  Fork  Union,  his  home. 
Here  the  rest  of  his  days  were  spent,  and  here  he  died. 
Since  now  he  had  no  regular  church  and  Sunday  appoint- 
ments, he  was  more  than  ever  free  for  special  services 
and  for  protracted-meeting  engagements.  And  how 
busy  he  was  kept,  and  what  long  and,  if  necessary,  what 
rapid  trips  he  made  across  the  State  and  even  yet  further 
afield  to  help  pastors  and  churches!  He  was  now  no 
longer  a  young  man,  and  yet  he  seemed  to  have  the  vigor 
and  dauntless  spirit  of  a  young  man.  Once  he  was  help- 
ing a  pastor  in  the  Valley  when  a  call  came  to  both  of 
them,  as  trustees,  to  attend  an  important  meeting  of  the 
Richmond  College  Board.  Dr.  Hatcher  preached  at  the 
night  service,  and  then  he  and  the  pastor  traveled  all 
night  in  a  day  coach,  reaching  Richmond  for  breakfast. 
After  the  Board's  meeting  was  over  they  traveled  again 
all  night,  and  then,  by  driving  eleven  miles  the  next 
morning,  were  on  hand  for  that  morning's  meeting  at  the 
church.  Nor  did  the  forced  march  leave  Dr.  Hatcher 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         359 

weary  or  jaded.  The  week  before  his  death  he  attended 
three  Associations  and  rode  nine  miles  to  see  a  boy  who 
was  thinking  about  attending  the  Fork  Union  Academy. 
His  activity  of  heart  and  body  continued  to  the  very  last 
day  of  his  life.  The  night  before  his  death  there  was  a 
gathering  of  his  fellow-citizens  at  his  house  and  on  his 
lawn  to  take  steps  for  village  improvement  work,  and  he 
made  them  a  speech.  Early  the  next  morning  he  was 
dressed,  straightening  up  things  in  his  room,  and  singing, 
when  the  messenger  of  death  approached,  and  in  a  few 
hours  he  had  fallen  on  sleep. 

Dr.  Hatcher  was  many  sided,  able  to  do  many  things 
well.  He  was  called,  by  one,  "the  great  Baptist  com- 
moner," and  indeed  his  gift  for  leadership  was  wonder- 
ful. While  his  power  as  a  leader  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, a  few  words  more  on  this  side  of  his  life  and 
work  will  not  be  untimely.  In  emergencies,  when  others 
hesitated,  or  failed  to  see  the  way  the  path  of  duty  and 
success  led,  or  were  held  back  by  prudence  or  conserva- 
tism, Dr.  Hatcher  came  to  his  conviction  and  determina- 
tion and  moved  forward,  inviting  his  brethren  to  go  with 
him  to  victory.  As  an  illustration  of  this,  see  him  at  a 
crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Greater  Richmond  College. 
The  Finance  Committee  hesitated  to  assume  the  larger 
financial  obligations  which  the  magnificent  plans  for 
Westhampton  demanded.  The  Board  of  Trustees  met 
in  special  session.  Should  they  retrench,  or,  with  faith 
in  God  and  the  brethren,  assume  the  great  responsibility 
and  move  forward  for  great  things?  There  was  silence. 
After  a  few  moments  Dr.  Hatcher  arose.  He  described 
with  tenderness  the  courage  and  boldness  of  the  fathers 
who  founded  the  college.  He  caught  the  vision  of 
glorious  things.  He  declared  his  trust  in  God  and  the 
denomination.  He  moved  that  the  larger  plans  be 
carried  out.  It  was  the  speech  of  a  born  leader.  It  sug- 
gested the  spirit  and  enthusiasm  of  a  young  man.  It  was 


360         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

a  great  speech ;  it  carried  the  day ;  it  marked  an  era. 
In  the  social  circle,  or  in  a  more  private  tete-a-tete  con- 
versation, he  was  delightful.  He  was  willing  to  listen, 
as  well  as  talk,  but  few  cared  to  do  anything  but  hear 
him  so  long  as  he  was  willing  to  describe  men  and  events. 
His  humor  was  as  sparkling  as  wine  and  as  the  cool 
water,  on  a  hot  day,  from  a  crystal  spring.  So  far, 
nothing  has  been  said  about  Dr.  Hatcher's  work  with  his 
pen.  For  years  he  wrote  regularly  for  the  Religious 
Herald,  and  later  was  a  constant  contributor  to  the 
Baptist  World.  During  a  number  of  years  he  wrote  a 
part  of  the  lesson  notes  in  the  Baptist  Teacher,  of  the 
Nashville  Board.  In  order  to  keep  up  all  this  work,  as 
well  as  his  large  correspondence,  he  managed  to  make 
good  use  of  fragments  of  time,  even  when  he  was  wait- 
ing for  a  train,  and  in  his  latter  years  often  called  upon 
a  friend  or  companion  to  become  his  scribe.  He  was  also 
an  author.  There  is  his  "Life  of  Dr.  Jeter."  He  and 
his  wife  wrote  together  the  "Life  of  Dr.  A.  B.  Brown." 
Two  books  he  gave  the  world  in  the  last  period  of  his 
life— "John  Jasper"  and  "Along  the  Trail  of  the 
Friendly  Years,"  have  had  a  wide  circulation  and  given 
great  pleasure  to  thousands.  To  this  latter  book,  which 
is  largely  autobiographical,  the  reader  is  referred  for 
the  fuller  knowledge  of  Dr.  Hatcher's  life.  Not  a  few 
facts  in  this  sketch  are  taken  from  this  book.  It  is 
understood  that  he  had  another  book  almost  ready  for 
publication  when  his  end  came;  some  chapters  of  this 
book  have  been  published,  since  his  death,  in  the  New 
York  Watchman-Examiner. 

Dr.  Hatcher  was  survived  by  his  wife.  Together  they 
had  walked  the  paths  of  married  life  since  December, 
1864.  She  was  Miss  Virginia  Snead,  of  Fork  Union, 
Fluvanna  County,  and  not  long  before  her  marriage  had 
graduated  at  the  Albemarle  Female  Institute,  Charlottes- 


WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE  HATCHER         361 

ville,  Va.  Mrs.  Hatcher  helped  to  organize  the  W.  M.  U. 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  and  in  1889  was  the 
first  president  of  the  Virginia  (State)  Union.  The 
children  who  survive  their  father  are  Rev.  Dr.  Eldridge 
B.  Hatcher,  Miss  Ora  Latham  Hatcher,  Mrs.  C.  L. 
DeMott,  and  Mrs.  H.  W.  Sadler.  The  span  of  his  life 
was  from  July  25,  1834,  to  Saturday,  August  24,  1912. 
Services  were  held,  first  at  Fork  Union  and  then  in  Rich- 
mond. The  plan  that  his  body  be  laid  to  rest  under  the 
sod  of  Fluvanna  was  changed  when  a  committee  came 
from  his  old  flock,  Grace  Street  Church,  asking  that 
Hollywood  be  made  his  burial  place.  Here,  near  the 
graves  of  many  whom  he  loved  and  with  whom  he 
labored,  and  hard  by  the  city  where  so  much  of  his  life 
was  spent,  his  ashes  await  the  resurrection  morn.  The 
speakers  at  the  funeral  at  Fork  Union  were  Dr.  F.  W. 
Boatwright,  Mr.  Walton,  Dr.  W.  W.  Landrum,  and  Dr. 
T.  J.  Shipman,  and  those  taking  part  in  the  services 
at  Grace  Street  were  Dr.  R.  J.  Willingham,  Dr.  W.  W. 
Landrum,  Rev.  Andrew  Broaddus,  Lieutenant-Go vernor 
J.  Taylor  Ellyson,  Dr.  R.  H.  Pitt,  Dr.  C.  H.  Ryland,  and 
Mr.  Haddon  Watkins.  Such  a  familiar  figure  was 
Dr.  Hatcher  to  Virginia  Baptists  that  a  description  of  his 
personal  appearance  seems  almost  unnecessary,  but  some 
who  read  these  pages  may  live  beyond  the  arena  and 
period  of  his  service.  In  his  latter  years  he  was  portly 
in  figure,  and  yet  he  had,  almost  to  the  end,  an  alertness 
of  movement  that  showed  remarkable  physical  vigor. 
He  was  of  distinguished  bearing,  and  would  have 
attracted  attention  in  any  crowd.  His  features  were 
almost  rugged,  though  not  stern,  and  his  eyes  clear  and 
imperative  in  their  sweep.  His  head,  which  was  large, 
finely  shaped,  and  remarkably  broad,  was  firmly  set  on 
his  neck  that  gave  token  of  strength  and  power.  While 
he  was  not  tall,  his  appearance  before  an  audience  was 
always  impressive,  for  he  was  indeed  a  master  of 
assemblies. 


ALEXANDER  FLEET 
1912 

In  the  home  of  his  father,  Col.  Alexander  Fleet  (who 
claimed,  and  apparently  with  justness,  to  be  descended 
from  Charlemagne,  of  France),  near  Fleetwood  Acad- 
emy, King  and  Queen  County,  Virginia,  Alexander  Fleet 
was  born.  In  the  community  of  his  birth  he  came  up  to 
manhood  "amidst  influences  which  admirably  tended  to 
nurture  his  mind  and  heart,  to  refine  his  manners,  and 
confirm  him  in  the  faith  of  the  gospel  as  held  and  prac- 
ticed among  Baptists.  The  piety  of  his  early  life,  his 
devotion  to  the  interests  of  the  church,  and  his  natural 
aptitude  and  gifts,  left  no  cause  for  surprise  among  his 
associates  and  friends  when  he  gave  himself  to  the 
ministry/'  At  Bruington  Church,  King  and  Queen 
County,  he  was  ordained,  on  June  24,  1883,  to  the  gospel 
ministry.  He  began  his  ministerial  career  as  pastor  of 
Upper  Essex  and  Centennial  Churches,  Rappahannock 
Association.  This  Association  was  to  be,  save  for  a  brief 
season,  the  scene  of  his  work  as  a  pastor  and  preacher. 
For  some  eighteen  years  he  ministered  to  the  Exol  and 
St.  Stephen's  Churches,  and  a  year  or  so  longer  at  the 
former  charge.  His  interesting  association  with  these 
churches  began  in  1890. 

Rev.  W.  T.  Hundley,  speaking  of  Mr.  Fleet,  after  his 
death,  says :  "He  was  known  by  friends  and  companions 
.  .  .  as  Darner  Fleet.  .  .  .  Fifty  years  ago  last 
September  I  saw  him  for  the  first  time  one  Monday 
morning,  standing  by  a  desk  in  the  old  academy  building 
at  Stevensville,  King  and  Queen  County.  .  .  .  He 
was  a  tall  and  comely  youth,  with  the  ruddy  glow  of 

362 


ALEXANDER  FLEET  363 

budding  manhood  on  his  cheeks.  .  .  .  Darner  and 
I  entered  Richmond  College  together.  ...  All  the 
qualities  that  go  to  make  up  the  character  of  a  royal 
Christian  gentleman  were  found  in  him;  .  .  .  gentle 
as  a  woman,  refined,  cultured,  intellectual,  self-sacrific- 
ing, modest,  courageous,  faithful,  loyal  to  his  convictions, 
cheerful.  So  he  was  a  gentle  man.  I  can  say  no  more." 

"Along  with  his  ministerial  aims  and  glad  willingness 
to  preach  as  God  gave  him  opportunity,  he  was  strongly 
called  to  the  schoolroom,  and  much  of  his  life  was 
devoted  to  that  high  and  useful  service.  He  conducted 
schools  at  Warrenton,  six  years  in  Kentucky,  at  Tappa- 
hannock,  and  at  Bruington,  and  many  pupils  in  these 
several  localities  hold  his  memory  in  grateful  esteem.'' 
During  his  life  at  Warrenton  he  was  pastor,  for  a  short 
time,  of  Bealeton  and  Broad  Run,  churches  of  the 
Potomac  Association. 

For  some  years  before  his  death  his  health  was  not 
good,  and  so  his  work  was  much  interrupted.  He  bore 
his  sufferings  with  Christian  fortitude,  and  his  end,  that 
came  September  20,  1912,  was  peaceful.  His  wife,  who 
before  her  marriage  was  Miss  Josie  Jeffries,  of  Essex, 
and  these  children  survive  him:  Ella  Laurie  (Mrs.  Robert 
Grey  Dillard),  Robert  Hill  Fleet,  Rawley  Martin  Fleet, 
Martha  Pollard  Fleet.  The  quotations  in  this  sketch  and 
some  of  the  facts  are  from  the  obituary,  in  the  Minutes 
of  the  General  Association,  by  Rev.  Dr.  G.  W.  Beale. 


ROBERT  BABBOR  GILBERT 
1867-1913 

While  the  list  of  ministers  and  the  Associational  tables 
of  the  General  Association  do  not  contain  the  name  of 
Robert  Gilbert,  an  obituary  of  him  appeared  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  General  Association  for  1913,  written 
by  Rev.  O.  L.  Terry,  one  of  the  pastors  of  the  New 
Lebanon  Association.  The  facts  given  in  the  obituary, 
with  others  furnished  by  Mr.  Terry,  are  summed  up  here. 
He  was  born  in  Russell  County,  Virginia,  in  1867,  and 
died  February  8,  1913.  In  1889  he  was  baptized  into 
the  fellowship  of  the  Oak  Grove  Church,  New  Lebanon 
Association.  He  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry  in 
1899,  and  then  the  Copper  Ridge  Baptist  Church  called 
him  to  be  their  pastor.  Until  his  death,  February  8, 
1913,  his  life  was  a  consecrated  one,  and  his  friends  say 
that  in  his  last  hours,  when  he  was  ill,  he  sang,  preached, 
and  prayed  till  he  fell  on  sleep.  He  left  behind  him  a 
mother  and  two  brothers.  His  education,  though  limited, 
was  remarkable,  when  it  is  remembered  that  his  oppor- 
tunities for  self -improvement  were  most  restricted.  His 
knowledge  and  comprehension  of  the  Bible  were  wonder- 
ful. Mr.  Terry  gave  him  a  "Teacher's  Bible"  and  guided 
him  in  the  effective  use  of  this  valuable  volume.  Mr. 
Gilbert  was  a  most  zealous  and  earnest  preacher.  It  was 
his  custom  to  get  employment  at  "public  works"  and  then 
preach  to  his  fellow-workers  at  night.  Many  very  hard- 
hearted sinners  were  converted  under  his  ministry. 


364 


THOMAS  F.  GRIMSLEY 
1835-1913 

In  the  "Lives  of  Virginia  Baptist  Ministers,"  Third 
Series,  there  is  a  sketch  of  Rev.  Barnett  Grimsley.  Rev. 
Thomas  F.  Grimsley,  who  was  his  son,  was  born  near 
Laurel  Mills,  Rappahannock  County,  Virginia,  December 
20,  1835.  As  a  youth  Mr.  Grimsley,  with  the  help  of  Rev. 
Mr.  Worden,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  prepared  himself 
to  teach,  and  began  his  work  in  this  important  sphere  in 
the  home  of  Mr.  William  B.  Harris,  of  Clarke  County. 
While  young  Grimsley  was  giving  instruction  in  other 
branches,  perhaps  he  was  receiving  from  Mr.  Harris, 
who  was  a  good  classical  scholar,  special  training  in  the 
Latin  language  and  literature.  His  work  at  this  time 
was  evidently  thorough,  for  in  his  latter  years,  after  all 
the  vicissitudes  through  which  he  had  passed,  he  could 
translate,  practically  at  sight,  Caesar,  Virgil,  Cicero,  and 
the  Vulgate.  He  was  a  great  reader,  and  was  always 
trying  to  fit  himself,  in  these  years,  for  the  business  of 
teaching.  When  the  War  broke  out  he  left  the  school- 
room for  the  more  trying  experiences  of  the  camp.  As 
a  member  of  the  6th  Virginia  Cavalry  he  followed  the 
cause  of  the  Confederacy  from  Manassas  to  Appo- 
mattox.  He  made  a  good  record  as  a  soldier,  and  his 
comrades,  who  knew  him  as  Tom  Grimsley,  loved  to  tell 
how  he  had  stood  by  them  in  their  hours  of  emergency. 

With  the  end  of  the  War  he  took  up  the  work  of  life 
in  the  twofold  capacity  of  teacher  and  preacher.  At 
Mt.  Salem  Church,  on  Saturday  before  the  first  Sunday 
in  February,  1868,  he  was  ordained  to  the  full  work  of 
the  gospel  ministry.  In  the  course  of  the  years,  he  served 

365 


366         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

as  pastor,  his  field  of  activity  being  the  counties  of 
Madison,  Greene,  Culpeper,  and  Rappahannock,  these 
churches:  Liberty,  Swift  Run,  Mt.  Zion,  Shiloh,  Slate 
Mills,  Flint  Hill,  Graves'  Chapel,  Pleasant  Grove,  and 
Bethel.  To  this  last  organization  he  preached  more  than 
thirty-seven  years.  After  his  marriage,  November  29, 
1869,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  M.  Carpenter,  of  Madison 
County,  he  made  his  home,  for  the  years  of  his  active 
ministry,  at  Madison  Court  House.  Here  he  established 
a  school  for  young  ladies,  which  he  conducted  success- 
fully until  the  demands  of  his  churches  made  the  closing 
of  the  school  necessary. 

While  as  a  preacher  Mr.  Grimsley  did  not  have  the 
ringing  voice  and  impressive  delivery  of  his  father,  as  a 
thinker  he  was  his  father's  equal,  if  not  his  superior. 
"His  sermons  were  clear  in  conception,  accurate  in  state- 
ment, and  always  instructive  and  helpful."  A  man  of 
strong  convictions,  he  was  amiable,  generous,  and  frank, 
with  agreeable  and  winning  manners.  As  a  pastor  he 
visited  rich  and  poor  alike,  and  took  an  interest  in  the 
material,  as  well  as  the  spiritual,  welfare  of  his  people. 
Several  men  whom  he  baptized  afterwards  became 
ministers  of  the  gospel. 

Mr.  Grimsley  died  at  the  home  of  his  son-in-law, 
Mr.  Barnett  Miller,  of  Culpeper,  Va.,  March  6,  1913. 
On  the  thirtieth  day  of  the  same  month,  at  a  Fifth  Sun- 
day Meeting  in  the  Culpeper  Baptist  Church,  when  a 
Memorial  Service  in  honor  of  Mr.  Grimsley  was  held,  a 
paper  was  read  by  Rev.  Thomas  P.  Brown.  This  sketch 
is  based  upon  this  paper  and  upon  the  obituary,  also  by 
Mr.  Brown,  which  appeared  in  the  Minutes  of  the  Gen- 
eral Association  for  1913. 


ISAAC  NEWTON  MAY 

1841-1913 

A  number  of  Virginia  Baptist  preachers  have  had,  as 
a  part  of  their  life  work,  the  opportunities  and  the 
responsibilities  of  the  teacher,  some  in  public  schools, 
some  in  academies,  and  some  in  colleges  and  universities. 
In  many  cases,  as  was  true  of  Rev.  I.  N.  May,  the  years 
given  to  the  classroom  were  also  those  through  which 
they  preached.  In  not  a  few  instances  financial  needs 
have  made  it  necessary  for  the  preacher  to  supplement 
his  salary  from  his  church  or  churches.  And  often  it 
has  been  true  that  the  talent  for  teaching  equaled,  if  it 
did  not  surpass,  that  for  the  pulpit.  Mr.  May,  either  as 
student  or  as  teacher,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  was  con- 
nected with  two  universities  and  several  secondary 
schools.  A  student  of  the  University  of  Virginia  the  ses- 
sion of  1860-61,  he  left  his  ahna  mater  to  enter  the 
Confederate  Army,  and  after  the  War,  having  gone  to 
Texas,  he  was  Professor  in  Baylor  University.  He  was 
also  Principal  of  Bryan  Female  College.  Upon  his  return 
to  Virginia  he  was  pastor,  first,  at  Gordonsville,  then  at 
Luray,  and  then  at  Flint  Hill,  Rappahannock  County. 
From  Flint  Hill  he  moved  to  Louisa  County  to  the  estate 
he  had  inherited  from  his  father.  This  place,  known  as 
"Oakland,"  was  to  be  his  home  until  his  death.  After 
teaching  for  several  sessions,  beginning  in  1882,  first  at 
Green  Level  Academy  and  then  at  Locust  Dale  Academy, 
he  established  at  his  home  a  school  for  boys,  known  as 
"Oakland  Academy,"  where  he  labored  with  enthusiasm 
and  success  to  the  end  of  his  life.  He  had  a  bright  mind, 
loved  to  teach,  and  was  especially  devoted  to  mathematics. 

367 


368         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Prof.  J.  B.  Loving,  who  was  a  student  under  him  at 
Locust  Dale,  wrote  of  his  influence  over  his  scholars,  and 
quoted  a  remark  of  Prof.  John  Hart  about  one  of  Mr. 
May's  sermons  at  Locust  Dale;  he  said  that  neither  Dr. 
Hawthorne  nor  any  of  the  "D.  D.'s"  could  have  preached 
a  finer  sermon. 

Mr.  May's  work  as  a  preacher  was  in  the  Shiloh  and 
Goshen  Associations.  While  teaching  in  Rappahannock 
County  he  was  pastor  of  Flint  Hill  and  Luray  Churches. 
After  moving  to  Louisa  he  was  pastor,  before  his  active 
work  as  a  preacher  closed,  of  the  following  churches: 
Oakland,  Lower  Gold  Mine,  Cedar  Run,  Perkins,  Forest 
Hill,  Mt.  Gilead.  Some  of  these  places  were  at  con- 
siderable distances  from  his  home,  so  there  is  the  picture 
before  our  eyes  of  this  man  of  God,  with  his  double 
work,  turning  away  from  the  schoolroom  to  drive  or  ride 
to  his  distant  "appointment."  Professor  Loving  says  of 
him :  "As  a  sermonizer  Brother  May  was  far  above  the 
average.  He  possessed  a  logical  mind,  analyzed  well  his 
subject,  and  always  gave  his  hearers  something  they 
could  take  with  them  to  their  homes."  While  in  Texas, 
in  August,  1867,  Mr.  May  was  married  to  Miss  Jane  D. 
Goodwin,  a  native  Virginian,  who,  with  a  son,  survived 
him.  In  the  home  which  she  helped  to  make,  cordial 
hospitality  abounded.  His  fatal  illness  lasted  but  a  week, 
and  on  March  17,  1913,  he  passed  away,  in  his  seventy- 
second  year,  for  he  was  born  September  28,  1841. 


REUBEN  BAKER  BOATWRIGHT 
1831-1913 

From  the  Religious  Herald  for  February  8,  1906,  the 
genial  and  kind  face  of  Reuben  Baker  Boatwright  looked 
forth  upon  the  reader.  The  occasion  for  the  presenta- 
tion of  this  picture  in  the  Herald  was  Mr.  Boatwright's 
arrival  at  the  age  of  threescore  and  fifteen  years.  The 
picture  was  accompanied  by  an  article  from  the  pen  of 
Dr.  A.  E.  Dickinson,  descriptive  of  the  work  and  charac- 
ter of  Mr.  Boatwright.  This  article  expressed  the 
opinion  that  perhaps  the  best  service  he  had  rendered  was 
the  giving  of  his  son,  Dr.  F.  W.  Boatwright,  to  Rich- 
mond College  and  to  the  world,  and  closed  with  these 
words:  "His  life  has  been  a  benediction,  and  I  trust  he 
may  yet  be  spared  for  years  to  the  hundreds  and 
thousands  who  know  and  love  him."  It  was  in  the  same 
year  that  Mr.  Boatwright  sent  a  brief  letter  to  the  Herald 
pleading  for  more  "spiritual  uplift"  in  its  columns  for 
the  old  men  and  women,  declaring  that  it  is  "highly 
necessary  to  keep  the  fires  burning  on  the  altars  of  our 
hearts."  Mr.  Boatwright  had  known  Mr.  Sands,  the  first 
editor  of  the  Herald,  and  had  paid  $4  a  year  subscription 
for  the  paper. 

Mr.  Boatwright  will  be  remembered  as  a  country  and 
village  preacher,  and  his  college  and  seminary  friend, 
Dr.  Charles  H.  Ryland,  whose  friendship  ran  out  through 
sixty  years,  thinks  that  the  following  lines  of  Goldsmith 
well  described  his  character  and  career : 

"Remote  from  towns  he  ran  his  godly  race, 
Nor  e'er  had  changed,  nor  wished  to  change,  his  place; 
Unpracticed  he  to  fawn,  or  seek  for  power, 
By  doctrines  fashioned  to  the  varying  hour; 
Far  other  aims  his  heart  had  learned  to  prize, — 
More  bent  to  raise  the  wretched  than  to  rise." 

369 


370         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Buckingham  County,  where  he  spent  much  of  his  life, 
and  beneath  whose  sod  his  ashes  rest,  gave  him  birth. 
Near  Mt.  Zion  Church,  January  23,  1831,  he  first  saw 
the  light,  his  parents  being  Reuben  Boatwright  and  Mary 
Bryant.  His  grandfather,  Reuben  Boatwright,  a  soldier 
of  the  Revolution,  coming  from  Prince  Edward  County 
to  Buckingham  County  in  1788,  had  built  his  home, 
"Travelers'  Rest,"  near  Mt.  Zion  Church.  The  son  of 
this  Revolutionary  soldier  and  the  father  of  Reuben 
Baber  Boatwright  was  an  ordained  minister,  but  he 
declined  calls  from  Mt.  Zion  and  other  churches,  choos- 
ing rather  to  look  after  his  farm  and  to  preach  as 
occasion  invited.  The  other  children  of  the  family  were 
two  daughters,  who  died  when  young,  and  two  brothers, 
Charles  P.  and  Thomas  Frederick,  and  three  half-sisters 
and  one  half-brother,  P.  P.  Boatwright,  offspring  of  the 
father's  second  marriage.  In  1847,  when  sixteen  years 
old,  he  made  a  profession  of  religion  and  was  baptized, 
near  Mt.  Zion  and  into  her  fellowship,  by  Rev.  Wm.  H. 
Taylor. 

After  having  begun  his  education  at  Berryman's 
Academy  he  entered  Richmond  College  in  the  fall  of 
1856,  Charles  H.  Ryland  being  one  of  his  fellow- 
students.  Before  his  course  of  two  years  at  the  college 
was  over  he  was  licensed  by  his  mother  church  to  preach, 
and  before  he  became  a  student  at  the  Southern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary  at  Greenville,  S.  C,  he  did  some 
preaching  and  was  ordained  at  Mt.  Zion,  Rev.  P.  S.  Hen- 
son  and  Rev.  W.  H.  Taylor  forming  the  presbytery.  His 
year  at  Greenville  was  the  first  in  the  history  of  the 
Seminary,  and  he  was  one  of  the  ten  Virginia  sent  that 
session.  His  fellow-student,  Charles  H.  Ryland,  says 
that  he  was  "the  best  theologian  of  his  class."  From  the 
Seminary  it  was  not  long  before  he  took  his  place  in  the 
army,  becoming  chaplain  of  the  46th  Virginia  Regiment. 


REUBEN  BAKER  BOATWRIGHT         371 

Before  the  War  ended  he  was  pastor  of  Enon  and 
Brown's,  in  the  James  River  Association,  and  Scottsville, 
in  the  Albemarle,  and,  having  been  married  on  Septem- 
ber 5,  1865,  in  Cumberland  County,  to  Miss  Maria  Eliza- 
beth Woodruff,  Rev.  Wm.  H.  Taylor  performing  the 
ceremony,  in  1866  he  took  charge  of  Lewisburg  and  other 
churches  in  Greenbrier  County,  West  Virginia.  The 
children  of  this  union  were  F.  W.,  Martha  Susan  (now 
Mrs.  J.  A.  Clark),  Mary  Elizabeth  (now  Mrs.  R.  M. 
Booth),  Sarah  Look  (now  Mrs.  Sands  Gayle),  and  John 
B.  During  his  pastorate  of  some  three  years  there  he  com- 
pleted the  repairs  on  the  Lewisburg  Meeting-House  and 
"secured  a  deed  of  gift  to  the  house  of  worship  at  the 
Sweet  Springs."  One  of  his  members  at  Sweet  Springs 
was  a  Mr.  Moss,  who  had  been  a  very  wicked  man,  and 
who,  at  the  age  of  eighty,  was  converted.  As  soon  as  he 
was  converted  he  became  most  anxious  to  know  more 
about  Jesus.  Upon  his  wife's  death,  years  before,  he  had 
put  her  Bible  away  in  the  bottom  of  the  trunk,  but  now  he 
took  it  out,  kissed  it  and  wept  over  it,  deploring  the  fact 
that  he  could  not  read  a  line  of  it.  But,  wonderful  to 
tell,  without  a  teacher  he  taught  himself,  and  spelled  and 
read  his  way  through  the  New  Testament  and  through 
much  of  the  Old  Testament.  He  never  would  read  to 
any  one,  but  Mr.  Boatwright,  interested  in  his  remarkable 
and  highly  praiseworthy  achievements,  went  up  to  his 
room,  prevailed  on  him  to  read  to  him,  and  found  that 
he  could  read,  and  that  he  understood  what  he  read. 
While  in  West  Virginia,  Mr.  Boatwright  knew  Wm.  G. 
Margrave,  whom  he  considered  "the  greatest  man  that 
ever  lived  in  West  Virginia,  for  he  served  most."  Mar- 
grave led  a  wicked  career  for  forty-five  years,  but  the 
remainder  of  his  life  he  was  a  zealous  worker  for  God. 
Although  an  ordained  minister,  he  never  served  as  a 
pastor  save  as  a  supply  or  till  the  church  could  get  some 
one  else.  In  the  destitute  sections  he  \vas  ever  busy, 


372         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

preaching  in  private  homes  and  distributing  far  and 
wide  tracts  and  good  books.  Mr.  Boatwright  tells  how 
once  Margrave  was  overtaken  by  night  in  a  section  where 
settlers  were  few  and  where  rattlesnakes  were  numerous. 
As  the  cabin  to  which  he  had  come  was  small,  and  the 
family  large,  they  could  give  him  food  but  not  a  bed.  So 
he  ate  his  supper,  and  then  raking  up  chips  into  a  circle, 
set  them  on  fire,  got  into  the  circle,  went  to  sleep,  and 
had  a  good  night's  rest. 

Marion,  in  the  Lebanon  Association,  was  Mr.  Boat- 
wright's  next  field  of  labor.     Here  was  his  home  and 
his  church  for  three  different  pastorates,  and,  all  told,  for 
seventeen  years,  a  longer  period  than  he  spent  as  pastor 
anywhere  else.     While  at  Marion  he  also  preached,  dur- 
ing his  first  pastorate,  for  the  South  Fork,  Chatham  Hill, 
and  Sugar  Grove  Churches,  and  during  his  second  term 
for  Friendship  and  Greenfield  Churches.   Mr.  Boatwright 
always  retained  "the  impress  of  his  alma  mater,"  was 
ever  interested  in  education,  and  while  at  Marion  taught 
in  the  Marion  Academy  and  the  Marion  Female  College. 
He  was  one  of  the  first  trustees  of  the  Southwest  Vir- 
ginia Institute  (now  Intermont  College),  and  later  of  the 
Jeter  Female  Institute,  Bedford  City.     In  writing  once 
for  the  Herald  on  the  question  of  ordination,  he  said, 
referring  to  the  Marion  period  of  his  life,  that  he  had 
had  "some  bitter  experience  in  trying,  as  one  of  a  presby- 
tery, to  keep  out  men  whom  I  thought  unqualified  for  the 
ministry."     Dr.  Ryland  is  doubtless  right  when  he  says : 
"At  this  place  the  best  work  of  his  life  was  done.     He 
not  only  built  up  the  Marion  Church  but  strengthened 
other  churches  in  Smyth  and  Washington  Counties."     It 
was  while  he  lived  in  Southwest  Virginia  that  once  at  a 
meeting  of  the  New  River  Association,  in  company  with 
Hon.  J.  Taylor  Ellyson  and  Dr.  W.  R.  L.  Smith,  the 
following  incident  occurred.     At  the  home  to  which  the 
trio  went  to  spend  the  night  there  were  not  less  than 


REUBEN  BAKER  BOATWRIGHT         373 

thirty  or  forty  guests.  After  a  long  trip  of  a  score  and 
a  half  miles  over  the  mountains  they  were  very  tired,  and 
so  no  little  interested  as  to  where  they  were  to  sleep. 
About  ten  o'clock  their  host  led  them  to  a  large  room 
furnished  with  two  good  beds.  There  was  a  fire  burning 
on  the  hearth,  but,  much  to  the  dismay  of  the  trio,  before 
the  fire  there  sat  two  women  wearing  long-eared  bonnets 
and  busy  cooking.  The  women  looked  neither  to  the 
right  nor  to  the  left,  and  were  silent.  It  was  evident  that 
they  were  going  to  stay  until  the  victuals  were  cooked, 
no  matter  how  long  that  took.  After  much  hesitation 
Mr.  Boatwright,  feeling  that  the  long-eared  bonnets  gave 
him  a  large  degree  of  protection  from  observation, 
undressed  and  got  into  bed.  His  companions  after  a 
season  left  the  room,  but  finally  returned,  when  the 
women,  seeing  that  they  were  ''uncommonly  modest 
young  men,"  gathered  up  the  next  day's  dinner  and 
departed. 

After  leaving  Marion  the  last  time,  and  before  his 
active  work  as  a  pastor  ceased,  Mr.  Boatwright  served 
the  following  churches,  all  of  them  in  that  general 
section  of  Eastern  Virginia  of  which  Buckingham  forms 
a  part:  Peterville  and  Fine  Creek  (Middle  District 
Association)  ;  Lyles  (Albemarle  Association)  ;  Carters- 
ville,  Enon,  Cedar,  Buckingham,  Cumberland  (James 
River  Association) ;  Mt.  Hermon,  Big  Spring,  Ivey 
Chapel,  Morgan's,  Diamond  Hill,  Flint  Hill  (Strawberry 
Association).  Before  this  he  had  been  pastor  for  a  year 
at  the  First  Church,  Bristol. 

During  the  closing  years  of  his  life  he  was  an  invalid, 
and  at  times  a  great  sufferer.  When  the  end  came,  April 
19,  1913,  his  wife  and  five  children  were  with  him,  and 
there  was  peace.  On  a  bright  Sunday  afternoon  his  body 
was  laid  to  rest  under  the  old  oaks  in  the  Buckingham 
churchyard,  the  funeral  being  conducted  by  Rev.  R.  W. 
Bagwell,  who  was  assisted  in  the  services  by  Rev.  W.  H. 
Street  and  Rev.  C.  H.  Ryland. 


JOSEPH  B.  KENDRICK 
1837-1913 

Within  the  bounds  of  the  New  Lebanon  Association 
the  main  work  of  Rev.  Joseph  B.  Kendrick  was  done. 
Before  the  organization  of  this  body  he  was  one  of  the 
original  members  of  Independence  Church,  which  was 
organized  in  1861.  For  many  years  he  was  pastor  of 
this  church.  The  other  churches  of  the  New  Lebanon 
Association  that  he  served  as  pastor  were  Bethany, 
Salem,  Russell's  Fork,  Corinth,  Finney,  and  Oak  Grove. 
He  was  a  member  of  a  family  remarkable  for  its  size, 
there  being  twenty-one  children.  He  was  the  youngest 
of  the  twenty-one,  and  outlived  them  all.  From  July  7, 
1837,  to  April  22,  1913,  was  the  period  covered  by  his 
life,  being  nearly  seventy-six  years.  On  April  27,  1859, 
he  was  married  to  Charity  Hart,  who  bore  him  five  sons 
and  six  daughters  and  survived  him.  In  March,  1861, 
he  was  licensed  to  the  gospel  ministry,  but  when  a  few 
weeks  later  .the  War  broke  out  he  enlisted  and  served 
until  the  battle  of  Sharpsburg,  September  16-17,  1862, 
when  he  received  such  wounds  that  he  was  exempted 
from  further  service.  While  in  the  army  he  was  in  the 
battles  of  Ball's  Bluff,  First  and  Second  Winchester, 
Hanover  Court  House,  Fair  Oaks,  Cross  Keys,  Port 
Republic,  Chickahominy,  Games'  Mill,  Malvern  Hill, 
Cedar  Mountain,  Kettle  Run,  Groveton,  Second  Manas- 
sas,  Chantilly,  and  Harper's  Ferry.  He  was  a  regular  at- 
tendant at  the  sessions  of  the  New  Lebanon  Association. 
He  was  sound  in  his  theology  and  faithful  in  his  procla- 
mation of  the  gospel.  As  an  evidence  of  how  customs 
have  changed,  it  is  interesting  to  know  that  at  one  time, 

374 


JOSEPH  B.  KENDRICK  375 

many  years  ago,  Mr.  Kendrick  was  a  distiller  as  well  as 
a  preacher.  There  is  a  man  now  living  who  tells  this 
incident:  "When  I  was  a  young  fellow  I  went  to  Mr. 
Kendrick's,  in  company  with  a  young  man,  and  we 
bought  a  quart  of  good  liquor  from  him."  During  his 
last  illness  Mr.  Kendrick  realized  that  his  end  was  near, 
but  no  fear  oppressed  him,  and  he  spoke  with  joy  of  his 
departure. 


WILSON  V.  SELFE 
1842-1913 

Within  the  bounds  of  the  New  Lebanon  Association, 
Rev.  Wilson  V.  Selfe  lived  and  did  his  work.  He  was 
a  prophet  with  honor  among  his  own  people.  "The  fact 
that  for  forty  years  he  was  able  to  command  the  respect 
and  esteem  of  the  people  among  whom  he  lived,  and 
lead  them  in  spiritual  things,  gives  abundant  proof  of  his 
excellent  character  and  his  consecration  to  the  work." 
He  was  born  October  2,  1842,  and  his  second  birth  took 
place  in  1869.  About  three  years  after  his  conversion 
he  entered  the  ministry,  and  in  the  long  course  of  his 
service  he  was  pastor  of  the  following  churches,  all  of 
them  in  the  New  Lebanon  Association:  Springfield, 
Mt.  Zion,  Grassy  Creek,  Cleveland,  Liberty,  Ring's 
Chapel.  He  was  with  the  Springfield  Church  longer  than 
with  any  other.  "He  was  a  pioneer,  laying  the  founda- 
tion upon  which  another  generation  is  now  building." 
On  January  11,  1865,  he  was  married  to  Elizabeth  Kiser, 
and  of  this  union  eleven  children  were  born,  and  all  of 
them  are  still  living.  He  passed  to  his  reward  May  21, 
1913. 


376 


THOMAS  BRECKENRIDGE  GATEWOOD 
1826-1913 

On  the  night  of  March  4,  1876,  a  great  calamity  befell 
Rev.  Thomas  Breckenridge  Gatewood.  His  home,  in 
the  northern  part  of  Amherst  County,  was  consumed  by 
fire,  his  youngest  son,  Boyd  Elbert  Gatewood,  who  was 
eleven  years  old,  perishing  in  the  flames.  At  the  time  of 
this  catastrophe  Mr.  Gatewood,  with  his  wife,  was  away 
from  home  and  at  one  of  his  churches.  With  the  house 
were  destroyed  all  the  family  records,  so  that  some  of  the 
dates  given  in  this  sketch  are  approximate  only.  He  was 
born  in  Amherst  County,  Virginia,  October  6,  1826,  and 
about  1860  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  the  pres- 
bytery being  composed  of  Rev.  John  W.  Hopkins  and 
Rev.  Armistead  H.  Ogden.  He  organized  the  Oak  Grove 
Baptist  Church,  in  the  Albemarle  Association,  and  served 
them  as  pastor  for  some  fifteen  years.  He  was  also 
pastor  for  a  number  of  years  of  the  New  Prospect,  Piney 
Mount,  and  Corner  Stone  Churches.  Later  he  served  the 
Neriah  and  Mountain  Branch  Churches,  in  Rockbridge 
County.  It  is  said  that  he  married  more  couples  than  any 
preacher  in  his  county,  nor  did  county  lines  limit  his 
activity  in  this  sphere,  for  he  was  often  called  to  Bedford 
and  Rockbridge  to  perform  this  ceremony.  It  is  also 
estimated  that  under  his  ministry  more  people  were  led 
to  make  profession  of  their  faith  in  Christ  than  under 
any  other  minister  of  his  day  in  Amherst  County.  The 
larger  part  of  his  service  was  near  the  place  of  his 
nativity.  He  was  a  great  reader  and  a  subscriber  to 
the  Religious  Herald  for  forty  years.  He  was  fond 
of  horseback  riding,  and  took  great  interest  in  his  home, 

377 


378         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

a  farm  of  some  85  acres.  Here  he  entertained  many 
guests  with  genial  cordiality.  Vigorous  still  at  the  great 
age  of  eighty,  he  was  serving  churches  with  real  zeal, 
though  with  small  material  compensation.  Rev.  P.  H. 
Cowherd,  who  was  his  pastor  for  the  last  five  years  of 
the  life  of  the  venerable  man  of  God,  testifies  to  the 
attractiveness  of  this  old  soldier  of  Christ,  who  was 
always  present  at  every  service  of  his  church,  unless 
providentially  hindered.  He  says  of  him :  "He  stood  for 
truth  and  righteousness  and  was  uncompromisingly 
opposed  to  everything  that  seemed  wrong.  He  knew 
how  to  rebuke  with  all  long-suffering  and  love.  I  have 
often  heard  him  say :  'I  want  to  be  missed  for  the  good 
I  have  done  when  I  am  gone !'  '  He  was  married,  about 
1853,  to  Miss  Editha  Jane  Christian,  who  bore  him  three 
daughters  and  two  sons ;  of  these  children  three  are  still 
living,  namely :  Mrs.  V.  S.  Thornton,  Covington,  Va., 
Mrs.  A.  M.  Watts,  Amherst,  and  Mr.  Marshall  P.  Gate- 
wood,  Pleasant  View,  Va.  His  second  marriage  was 
about  November  8,  1879,  and  this  wife,  who  was  Miss 
Nannie  Jane  Thornton,  and  their  daughter,  Mrs.  T.  E. 
Lacy,  Covington,  Va.,  survive  him.  He  died,  after  a 
month's  illness,  on  June  2,  1913,  and  was  buried  in  the 
cemetery,  on  the  hill,  near  his  home.  The  funeral  service 
was  conducted  by  Rev.  E.  W.  Robertson. 


RANSDELL  WHITE  CRIDLIN 
1840-1913 

The  seventh  in  a  family  of  ten  children,  Ransdell 
White  Cridlin  was  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  Vir- 
ginia, July  18,  1840,  his  parents  being  William  White 
Cridlin  and  Alice  Peed  Cridlin.  The  parents  and  this 
child  were  natives  of  the  same  county,  the  stock  being 
English.  In  Essex  County,  whither  his  father  moved 
when  he  was  five  years  old,  young  Cridlin  attended,  at 
Vawter's  Episcopal  Church,  his  first  Sunday  school, 
where,  without  any  musical  instrument  save  a  tuning 
fork,  they  sang,  among  other  hymns,  "I  Want  to  Be  An 
Angel,"  and  "There  Is  a  Happy  Land  Far,  Far  Away." 
In  this  Sunday  school  one  teacher,  a  Mr.  Mathews,  who 
had  a  class  of  the  larger  boys,  was  remarkably  popular, 
and  finally  young  Cridlin,  finding  out  that  the  cause  of 
this  popularity  was  a  package  of  homemade  ginger  cakes 
that  Mr.  Mathews  brought  each  Sunday  under  his  cloak, 
at  once  longed  to  be  big  enough  to  enter  that  class.  His 
parents  dying  when  he  was  quite  young,  the  boy  went  to 
live  with  a  cousin,  where,  working  on  a  farm,  he  soon 
forgot  the  little  learning  that  the  old-field  school  had 
given  him.  The  family  of  Whites  with  whom  he  lived 
were  not  churchgoers,  and  his  religious  opportunities 
were  few.  He  did,  however,  go  once  to  a  camp  meeting, 
and,  left  outside,  heard,  from  behind  the  pulpit,  a  sermon 
that  greatly  touched  his  heart.  Upon  returning  home  he 
asked  his  cousin's  wife  to  teach  him  to  pray,  and, 
although  not  a  praying  woman,  she  told  him  the 
publican's  prayer,  "God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  Not 
only  then,  in  the  field,  in  the  stable,  in  the  woods,  did  the 

379 


380         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

boy  make  this  prayer,  but  even  through  life  this  soul-cry 
was  his.  Mr.  Cridlin  always  believed  that  this  call  of  his 
child  heart  was  heard,  and  that  then  he  was  converted. 
Before  long  he  went  to  Richmond  to  live  with  an  older 
brother,  and  was  there  put  with  Mr.  George  Ainslie, 
coach  maker,  to  learn  this  business,  and  here  he  remained 
until  1858.  He  now  went  to  a  night  school,  so  anxious 
was  he  to  advance  in  his  studies,  and  a  good  woman  took 
him  to  the  Pine  Apple  Episcopal  Church  Sunday  School, 
a  church  standing  on  the  corner  of  Franklin  and 
Eighteenth  Streets.  Here  he  became  fond  of  his  teacher 
and  of  the  pastor.  This  church  was  burned  and  he  went 
for  a  time  to  St.  John's  Episcopal  Church.  He  became 
careless,  however,  about  going  to  Sunday  school,  and  one 
Sunday,  as  he  was  setting  out  for  a  stroll,  he  was  passing 
the  Second  Baptist  Church,  on  Main  Street,  when  a  boy 
asked  him  to  go  into  his  Sunday  school.  He  accepted, 
and  was  put  into  the  class  of  Mr.  Hooper,  Mr.  H.  K. 
Ellyson  being  the  superintendent  of  the  school.  Later 
he  was  in  the  class  of  Mr.  John  McCarthy  at  the  First 
Baptist  Church.  During  a  protracted  meeting  at  the 
Leigh  Street  Baptist  Church,  whose  pastor  was  Rev.  E.  J. 
Willis,  Mr.  Cridlin  was  induced  by  his  friend  and  shop- 
mate,  W.  B.  Johnson,  to  attend  these  services.  He  made 
a  profession  of  religion  and  was  baptized  by  the  pastor. 
At  once  the  young  man  began  to  take  an  active  part  in 
religious  work,  and  one  night,  as  they  walked  home  from 
prayer-meeting  together,  Deacon  A.  B.  Clarke  stopped 
him  just  as  they  were  at  St.  John's  Church  and  asked 
him  if  he  had  ever  thought  whether  it  was  his  duty  to 
preach.  About  this  time  there  was  a  group  of  young  men 
in  the  Leigh  Street  Church  who  were  thinking  about  the 
ministry,  A.  B.  and  A.  P.  Woodfin,  George  B.  Smith, 
and  Royal  Figg  being  among  the  number.  By  the  help 
of  the  Ladies'  Society  of  the  church,  who  paid  all  of  his 


RANSDELL  WHITE  CRIDLIN  381 

expenses,  Mr.  Cridlin  was  enabled  to  go  to  the  Green 
Plain  Academy,  Southampton  County,  to  begin  his 
preparation  for  the  ministry.  Since  he  was  the  only  stu- 
dent in  the  school  who  was  a  Christian  he  felt  doubly 
that  he  must  let  his  light  shine,  so  he  studied  with  zeal, 
organized  a  Sunday  school  in  the  Academy,  and  finally 
preached  before  the  students  and  teachers  his  first 
sermon,  his  text  being  John  3:16.  A  revival  followed, 
and  fifteen  of  the  young  men  accepted  Christ,  but  never 
again,  to  the  end  of  his  life,  did  he  preach  from  this  text. 
During  his  vacations  he  did  colporteur  work  in  South- 
ampton, Sussex,  and  Amelia  Counties,  and  after  the 
revival,  while  going  on  with  his  studies,  supplied  Hebron 
and  Zion  Churches.  At  the  close  of  the  session  the  stu- 
dents presented  him  with  six  volumes  of  Olshausen's 
Commentary  as  a  token  of  their  appreciation  of  his 
services  for  them.  The  War  interrupted  his  course  at 
Richmond  College,  begun  in  1860,  and  he  became  a 
missionary  among  the  soldiers,  doing  work  in  the  camps 
and  hospitals  on  the  Potomac  River,  at  Mathias  Point, 
Craney  Island,  Norfolk,  and  Portsmouth.  He  was 
licensed  to  preach  July  30,  1860,  and  having  received  his 
commission  as  chaplain  of  the  38th  Virginia  Regiment, 
June  9,  1863,  he  was,  on  the  following  December  6th, 
ordained.  The  presbytery,  consisting  of  these  preachers, 
Thomas  Hume,  Sr.,  J.  B.  Harwicke,  T.  C.  Keene,  John 
M.  Butler,  William  M.  Young,  ordained,  at  the  same 
time,  Joseph  F.  Deans.  During  the  Seven  Days  battles 
around  Richmond  the  hospital  became  very  much 
crowded,  and  often  Mr.  Cridlin  helped  lay  to  rest  as 
many  as  fifty  soldiers  a  day.  He  shared  with  his  regi- 
ment all  the  dangers  of  the  battlefield,  removing  the 
wounded  from  the  zone  of  fire  and  helping  in  other  ways. 
On  to  the  end  of  the  War  he  was  with  his  command. 
He  baptized  many  of  his  fellow-soldiers,  sometimes 


382         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

under  the  very  guns  of  the  enemy.  One  whom  he  bap- 
tized was  Captain  Chas.  F.  James,  Company  F,  8th  Vir- 
ginia Regiment,  who  afterwards  became  an  able  preacher 
and  educator.  Once,  near  Chester,  he  and  his  negro 
servant  were  preparing  a  pond  for  baptism  when  the 
enemy,  thinking  that  he  was  throwing  up  breastworks, 
began  to  shell  the  place.  The  service  was  postponed. 
His  brigade,  at  the  end,  in  appreciation  of  his  work  for 
them,  presented  him  with  a  magnificent  horse,  with 
saddle  and  bridle,  the  gift  having  cost  them  $1,200. 
After  the  surrender  at  Appomattox  he  became  Principal 
of  the  Salem  Academy,  Chesterfield  County,  and  the 
following  spring  became  pastor  of  the  Salem  and  Hepzi- 
bah  (or  Branch's)  Churches.  On  November  1,  1866,  he 
was  married  to  Miss  Mary  E.  Burgess,  the  daughter  of 
Mr.  William  Burgess,  of  Chesterfield  County.  She  lived 
only  a  year,  the  injuries  received  in  a  fall  from  a  runaway 
horse  causing  her  death.  His  second  wife,  also  of 
Chesterfield  County,  to  whom  he  was  married  January  1 , 
1869,  was  Miss  Emma  H.  Snellings. 

In  May,  1871,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Fourth  Street 
Church,  Portsmouth,  where  he  remained  until  August, 
1874.  After  serving  eighteen  months  as  missionary  of 
the  Middle  District  Association  he  became  pastor  of  the 
Red  Lane,  Fine  Creek,  and  Peterville  Churches,  Pow- 
hatan  County,  and  from  there  he  returned  to  Portsmouth 
to  become  once  more  pastor  of  the  Fourth  Street  Church. 
In  connection  with  this  pastorate  he  was  also  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Portsmouth  Orphan  Asylum.  It  was 
while  he  was  in  this  twofold  work  that  "Corvejon,"  in 
the  Relights  Herald,  called  attention  to  his  marked 
personal  likeness  to  Dr.  A.  E.  Dickinson,  and  spoke 
further,  as  follows,  of  him :  "  .  .  .  Brother  Cridlin 
is  quite  a  nabob.  He  lives  in  a  princely  mansion  on  the 
edge  of  the  sea — rides  in  his  own  buggy,  catches  his  own 


RANSDELL  WHITE  CRIDLIN  383 

crabs,  cultivates  a  mammoth  garden,  and  lives  like  an 
admiral.  But  withal  he  cleaves  to  the  Lord  with  full 
purpose  of  heart,  works  patiently  on  his  sermons, 
watches  for  the  souls  of  his  people,  and  lives  for  eternity. 
.  .  .  He  is  a  fluent,  easy  speaker,  with  a  mellow, 
pleasant  voice.  His  sermons  are  evangelical  in  doctrine, 
addressed  to  the  hearts  and  consciences  of  his  people,  and 
often  delivered  in  great  fervor  and  tenderness."  His 
next  work  was  at  Brambleton,  where  from  a  mission  a 
church  was  organized,  under  his  care,  with  nineteen 
members.  This  church  is  now  known  as  the  Park 
Avenue  (Norfolk)  Church.  At  this  time  he  was  also 
pastor  of  Salem,  Mulberry,  and  Kempsville  Churches, 
Portsmouth  Association.  While  on  his  next  field,  which 
was  in  the  Dover  Association  and  was  composed  of  the 
churches,  Winns,  Berea,  and  Deep  Run,  he  established 
the  Beulah  Hill  Institute. 

The  next  period  of  his  life  was  given,  in  the  main,  to 
education.  Upon  the  suggestion  of  Rev.  M.  F.  Sanford, 
and  with  the  financial  cooperation  of  Mr.  J.  D.  Brad- 
shaw,  he  established  at  Burkeville,  Va.,  the  Southside 
Female  Institute.  Here,  with  the  cooperation  of  his 
resourceful  wife,  he  kept  up  for  a  series  of  years  a  school 
that  enabled  scores  of  young  women  to  secure  an  educa- 
tion. In  1902,  upon  the  death  of  Mr.  Bradshaw,  and 
because  of  other  things,  he  was  led  to  sell  the  Burkeville 
property  and  set  up,  at  Amelia  Court  House,  the  Otter- 
burne  Springs  Institute.  He  gave  up  this  work  to  become 
pastor  of  the  Stockton  Street  Church,  Manchester  (now 
South  Richmond),  where  he  was  to  render  his  last  public 
services.  While  here,  in  1906,  his  wife,  who  had  been 
his  comfort  and  help  for  thirty-eight  years,  passed  away, 
and  two  years  later  his  failing  health  made  it  imperative 
that  he  resign  his  church.  After  this,  however,  with  fine 
dauntlessness  and  energy,  he  set  up  and  conducted  the 


384         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Virginia  Teachers'  Agency  and  Bureau  of  Information 
for  Pastoral  Supply,  one  of  his  daughters  rendering  him 
much  assistance.  This  work  he  maintained  for  five 
years,  though  most  of  this  time  he  was  confined  to  his 
bed  or  his  home.  His  energy  was  wonderful,  and  then, 
at  last,  on  the  afternoon  of  Sunday,  June  22,  1913,  he 
fell  on  sleep.  His  funeral  at  Stockton  Street  Church,  and 
the  burial  at  Riverview  Cemetery  were  both  according  to 
the  directions  he  had  given  in  a  letter  to  his  son.  His 
children  who  survive  him  are  William  Broaddus  Cridlin, 
Ransdell  Chiles  Cridlin,  Mrs.  L.  B.  Lloyd,  and  Misses 
Addie  and  Nettie  Cridlin. 


JOHN  KERR  FAULKNER 
1834-1913 

On  April  3,  1834,  Mr.  William  A.  Faulkner  and  his 
wife,  Mary  Anne  (Crawley),  needed  a  name  for  a  boy, 
since  on  that  day  there  had  come  into  their  home,  near 
Black  Walnut,  Halifax  County,  Virginia,  their  first  son. 
Some  six  years  before  this  time  Rev.  John  Kerr,  a 
brilliant  and  popular  preacher,  who  had  spent  some  of  his 
earlier  ministry  in  Halifax,  became  pastor  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  Va.  So  Mr.  Faulkner,  "an 
influential  and  highly  esteemed  citizen,"  named  his  son 
after  the  Richmond  preacher.  Young  Faulkner  had  good 
educational  opportunities,  for  he  graduated  first  at  the 
University  of  Virginia  in  Philosophy  and  Political 
Economy,  and  at  a  later  period  attended  Richmond  Col- 
lege. In  the  former  institution,  among  his  fast  friends 
were  Thomas  Hume,  Jr.,  and  William  Kable.  He  was 
one  of  the  charter  members  of  the  University  Y.  M.  C.  A. 
After  leaving  the  University  he  taught  for  a  year  or  so 
in  Greenbrier  County,  West  Virginia.  In  1861,  when 
the  noise  of  war  was  in  the  land,  he  was  ordained  by 
Black  Walnut,  his  mother  church,  and  became  pastor  of 
Aaron's  Creek  Church.  In  1867,  when  he  was  still  in 
charge  of  this  church,  being  a  missionary  of  the  State 
Mission  Board,  he  reported  that  there  had  been  thirty- 
two  additions  to  the  church  by  baptism.  Before  his 
labors  in  the  Dan  River  Association  closed,  besides  the 
Aaron's  Creek  Church  he  had  these  churches  also :  Fork, 
Musterfield,  Clover,  Dan  River,  Mill  Stone,  and  Laurel 
Grove,  all  in  Halifax  County.  At  this  period  he  also 
ministered  to  Sandy  Creek,  in  North  Carolina.  Think 

385 


386         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

of  his  busy  life  when  more  than  one  year  he  was  preach- 
ing to  five  churches.  From  about  1889  some  ten  years 
of  his  life's  service  were  given  to  the  Rappahannock 
Association,  where  he  preached  for  these  churches: 
Clark's  Neck,  Zoar,  Ebenezer,  Spring  Hill,  and  Urbanna. 
His  ministry  outside  of  Virginia  was  as  pastor  at  Kins- 
ton,  Newton,  Ephesus,  Lincolnton,  Kid's  Chapel,  Fellow- 
ship, Winterville,  and  Castoria,  all  in  North  Carolina, 
and  at  Fort  Mill,  South  Carolina.  "His  last  pastorate 
was  held,  amidst  advancing  years  and  waning  strength, 
with  the  Alton  and  Semora  Churches,  south  of  the  Dan, 
and  when  no  longer  able  to  pursue  his  sacred  calling  he 
retired  to  a  home  near  Buffalo  Junction,  filled  with  the 
joyful  hopes  of  the  gospel  which  he  had  so  long  preached, 
and  soothed  with  the  love  and  veneration  of  countless 
grateful  hearts  to  whom  he  had  ministered  in  his  toilsome 
life." 

In  1861,  soon  after  his  ordination,  he  was  married  to 
Miss  Lavenia  Victoria  Chandler  (eldest  daughter  of 
Thomas  Chandler  and  Sally  Anne  Puryear),  of  Green- 
ville County,  North  Carolina,  with  whom  he  was  to  spend 
over  forty  years  of  happy  wedded  life,  a  union  broken 
by  her  death,  on  April  20,  1900.  During  her  last  painful 
and  protracted  illness  he  gave  up  his  church  to  minister 
to  her.  The  three  children  who  survive  their  parents 
are  Dr.  Thomas  H.  Faulkner,  a  well-known  dentist,  of 
Kinston,  N.  C. ;  J.  B.  Faulkner,  manager  of  the  Western 
Union  Telegraph  Company,  Richmond;  and  Mary 
Emma,  the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Tames  Long,  of  Goldsboro, 
N.  C. 

Evidences  of  the  worth  and  usefulness  of  this  man  of 
God  abound.  For  twelve  successive  years  he  was  chosen 
clerk  of  the  Dan  River  Association,  and  for  six, 
treasurer,  and  no  less  than  four  times  did  this  body 
choose  him  as  the  preacher  of  their  introductory  sermon. 


JOHN  KERR  FAULKNER  387 

One  in  a  position  to  know,  said  of  him :  "He  was  perhaps 
as  well  known  and  as  deservedly  loved  as  any  minister 
that  ever  lived  in  Halifax.  His  piety,  his  amiability,  and 
sympathetic  disposition  made  him  a  welcome  visitor  in 
the  homes  of  the  people  and  especially  to  those  with 
whom  and  for  whom  he  labored.  He  was  not  regarded 
as  a  brilliant  preacher,  but  was  strong,  tender,  and 
thoroughly  evangelical."  Another,  who  was  his  neigh- 
bor, thus  testifies  to  his  life  and  influence:  "He  was  a 
finished  scholar  and  a  strong  gospel  preacher.  Through- 
out his  life  he  scrupulously  obeyed  the  Scripture  injunc- 
tion as  to  giving.  On  looking  through  his  papers  since 
his  decease  they  show  that  at  the  end  of  each  year  he 
footed  up  his  accounts,  showing  what  the  gross  income 
of  all  his  resources  was,  and  that  he  gave  more  than  one- 
tenth.  You  can  not  say  anything  too  high  or  beautiful 
as  to  his  character — it  was  as  near  perfect  as  that  of  any 
man  I  have  ever  known.  He  was  an  incorruptible  man, 
who  brought  up  his  children  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  his 
daily  life  was  an  example  worthy  of  imitation."  The 
text — "For  I  determined  not  to  know  anything  among 
you  save  Jesus  Christ  and  him  crucified" — from  which, 
in  August,  1860,  he  preached  at  Black  Walnut  Church, 
his  first  sermon,  came  to  be  a  motto  and  standard  in  his 
life.  When  he  had  preached  fifty  years,  he  said :  "I  have 
never  been  on  the  platform  as  lecturer,  on  the  stump  as 
haranguer,  on  the  arena  with  'strange  vagaries,'  or  on 
the  mart  for  doubtful  emoluments ;  but  have  been  content 
to  be  only  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  and  pastor  of 
churches — all  the  way  up  to  the  present  time."  At  this 
time  his  face,  while  showing  the  marks  of  age,  had  the 
strength  of  a  Roman  senator  blended  with  the  peace  of 
a  victorious  child  of  God.  Once  a  brother  pastor  in  the 
same  county  sought  to  break  up  Mr.  Faulkner's  "field," 
being  anxious  for  one  of  the  churches  himself.  After- 


388         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

wards  this  man  came  to  grief  and  his  family  was  in 
want.  He  came  to  see  Mr.  Faulkner.  Excusing  himself, 
Mr.  Faulkner  slipped  out  of  the  parlor  long  enough  to 
say  to  his  daughter :  "See  that  a  sack  of  flour  and  some 
other  provisions  are  put  into  Brother  -  -  buggy,  and 
do  not  say  anything  about  it  or  let  him  see  how  it  gets 
there.  The  wife  and  children  will  find  it  when  he  reaches 
home.  They  need  it."  He  died  in  Richmond  at  the 
Retreat  for  the  Sick  at  8  A.  M.,  August  1,  1913.  On 
Sunday,  August  3,  his  body  was  laid  to  rest  beside  that 
of  his  wife  in  the  Chandler  burying  ground  in  Granville 
County,  North  Carolina. 


JOHN  ALEXANDER  SPEIGHT 
1840-1913 

While  North  Carolina  was  the  birthplace  of  John 
Alexander  Speight,  no  inconsiderable  part  of  his  ministry 
was  spent  in  Virginia.  He  served  various  churches  in 
the  territory  covered  by  the  old  Portsmouth  Association, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  pastor  of  the  Sunbeam 
Baptist  Church,  in  Southampton  County,  a  church  that 
was  organized  in  1907.  This  Sunbeam  Church,  which 
with  Elam  Church,  North  Carolina,  formed  his  field  at 
his  death,  was  especially  dear  to  his  heart,  since  under 
his  leadership  it  had  made  a  wonderful  record,  its 
membership  having  grown  in  seven  years  from  seventeen 
to  one  hundred  and  nine.  This  preacher  and  another 
preacher,  Rev.  T.  T.  Speight,  at  present  living  in  Wind- 
sor, N.  C.,  came  from  the  home  of  a  preacher,  their 
father  having  been  Rev.  Henry  Speight.  Henry  Speight 
and  Olivia  Pruden,  his  wife,  were  godly  people,  she  being 
of  Huguenot  extraction.  Although  it  is  stated  that  the 
son,  John,  had  little  preparation  for  college  save  an 
irregular  attendance  upon  the  neighborhood  schools,  still 
it  must  be  remembered  that  the  influence  of  such  pious 
parents  was  a  superior  preparation  for  college  and  for 
life.  He  graduated,  however,  at  Columbian  College, 
Washington,  D.  C.,  and  in  later  years  was  given  the 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  Judson  College.  He  was 
born  May  25,  1840,  and  celebrated  his  twenty-first  birth- 
day in  an  army  camp  in  Virginia.  This  fact  shows  how 
promptly  he  had  cast  in  his  lot  with  the  forces  of  the 
Confederacy,  and  before  the  end  of  this  struggle  he  had 

389 


390         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

been  wounded  twice  and  had  endured  the  unusual  priva- 
tion of  a  prisoner.  He  was  captured  at  Winchester  and 
again  at  Gettysburg,  and  spent  eighteen  months  at  Point 
Lookout  and  a  season  at  Fort  Delaware.  During  the 
War  he  was  a  member  of  the  Gates'  Guards,  Company  B, 
5th  Regiment  of  Infantry.  In  1865  he  came  home  "with 
his  parole  in  his  pocket  and  a  sweetheart  in  his  eye." 
Nor  was  it  long  before  this  sweetheart,  Miss  Elizabeth 
Williams,  of  Gates  County,  became  his  wife.  "She  made 
his  home  happy.  She  bore  him  sons  and  daughters.  She 
blessed  his  life." 

Scarcely  had  a  year  passed,  after  the  surrender  at 
Appomattox,  before  he  was  a  minister  of  the  gospel  in 
charge  of  a  church.  His  ordination  took  place  at  Middle 
Swamp  Baptist  Church,  in  his  native  county,  the  church 
of  which  his  father  was  pastor  for  years  and  which  he 
himself  had  joined  when  he  was  thirteen  years  old.  His 
ministry  in  North  Carolina  was  with  "Cashie  Church, 
Windsor,  with  its  century  and  a  third  of  blessed  memo- 
ries," and  with  "Ross,  writh  its  simple  faith  and  trustful 
folk  and  genuine  hope,"  and  finally  with  Elam.  In  Vir- 
ginia the  churches  he  served,  besides  Sunbeam,  were 
West  End  (Petersburg),  St.  John's,  North  West,  Kemps- 
ville,  Centerville,  Mulberry,  Deep  Creek,  and  Bethel. 
Besides  his  service  for  the  kingdom  as  a  preacher  he 
spent  some  years  as  an  editor,  the  Atlantic  Baptist,  of 
Norfolk,  the  Asheville  Baptist,  of  Asheville,  N.  C,  and 
the  Biblical  Recorder,  of  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  being  the  papers 
with  which  he  was  connected. 

The  wound  that  he  received  at  Gettysburg  led  to  his 
death.  About  three  years  before  his  end  he  was  attacked 
by  a  cancer  which  finally  overcame  him.  In  July  it  was 
his  joy  to  be  at  the  veterans'  reunion  on  the  famous 
Pennsylvania  battlefield  and  to  preach  to  his  old  com- 
rades and  foes,  and  on  the  last  day  of  the  next  month  he 


JOHN  ALEXANDER  SPEIGHT  391 

answered  the  summons  to  a  nobler  and  an  unending 
reunion.  The  body  was  buried  in  Magnolia  Cemetery, 
Berkley,  the  services  being  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Vernon 
I'Anson,  assisted  by  Rev.  Q.  C.  Davis,  Rev.  T.  T. 
Speight,  Rev.  T.  M.  Green,  Rev.  L.  E.  Dailey,  and  Rev. 
J.  H.  Pearcy.  On  September  7,  1913,  resolutions  of 
affection  and  respect  were  passed  by  the  Sunbeam  Church. 


JAMES  PASCHAL  LUCK 
1856-1913 

John  P.  Luck,  having  come  to  this  country  from 
England,  settled  in  Caroline  County,  and  later  purchased 
a  farm  in  Botetourt  County,  near  what  is  now  Hollins 
College,  where  he  kept  for  many  years  a  tavern  known 
as  the  "Black  Horse  Stand."  Tradition  says  that  Presi- 
dent Andrew  Jackson  often  put  up  at  the  "Black  Horse" 
on  his  way  back  and  forth  between  Tennessee  and  Wash- 
ington. His  son,  George  P.  Luck,  purchased  a  farm  on 
the  head  waters  of  Goose  Creek,  Bedford  County,  and 
here  passed  all  his  married  life.  His  second  wife  was 
Miss  Nannie  Buford,  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Abraham 
Buford  and  a  niece  of  Captain  Paschal  Buford,  a  man  of 
distinction  in  Bedford.  This  Mrs.  Luck  was  a  woman 
of  deep  piety,  and  after  many  years  her  prayers  were 
answered  in  the  conversion  of  her  husband,  who  finally 
became  a  Baptist  minister.  One  of  the  ten  children  of 
this  couple  was  James  Paschal  Luck,  who  was  given  at 
least  a  part  of  his  maternal  uncle's  name.  He  was  born 
August  4,  1856,  at  his  father's  home  in  Goose  Creek 
Valley.  This  valley,  lying  at  the  base  of  the  Peaks  of 
Otter,  that  lift  their  heads  some  4,000  feet  into  the  air, 
is  perhaps  the  most  fertile  section  of  Bedford  County, 
being  famous,  especially,  for  its  fine  tobacco.  Of  this 
tobacco  there  were  shipped,  in  seven  months  of  1886, 
from  Montvale,  the  railroad  station  for  Goose  Creek, 
510,550  pounds. 

One  could  follow  the  life  of  Mr.  Luck  to  the  end  with- 
out leaving  Bedford  County  or  going  out  of  sight  of  the 
Peaks  of  Otter,  save  for  the  most  brief  seasons.  Here 

392 


JAMES  PASCHAL  LUCK  393 

he  lived  and  did  his  work.  From  the  training  of  the 
public  schools  he  passed,  at  an  early  age,  into  business, 
working  first  on  the  farm,  then  in  a  store,  and  then 
becoming  a  commercial  traveler  for  a  Richmond  firm. 
He  made  a  profession  of  religion  when  about  seventeen 
years  old,  but  after  a  season  of  activity  in  religious 
service  the  temptations  of  the  world  caused  his  faith  to 
grow  dim  and  cast  a  dark  shadow  over  him.  While  in 
business  in  Missouri  he  was  made  quite  lame  for  several 
months  by  a  kick  on  his  knee  by  a  horse.  He  returned  to 
his  father's  home,  and  during  a  protracted  meeting  at  the 
old  home  church  renewed  his  vows  to  God  and  yielded 
to  a  call  that  he  had  resisted  for  some  time,  a  call  to 
preach.  Since  he  dared  not  go  forth  to  this  new  work 
without  fuller  preparation,  he  became  a  student,  first  at 
Sunnyside  Academy,  where  that  born  teacher  and  man 
of  God,  Rev.  Alexander  Eubank,  was  Principal,  and  then 
at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary. 

On  September  16,  1887,  at  Walnut  Grove,  he  was 
ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  which  was  to  be  his 
constant  and  loved  employment  to  the  day  of  his  death. 
In  the  course  of  these  twenty-six  years  he  was  pastor,  in 
some  cases  for  short  periods,  of  these  seventeen  churches, 
all  in  the  Strawberry  Association:  Beaver  Dam,  Mt. 
Olivet,  Mountain  View,  Timber  Ridge,  Wolf  Hill,  New 
Prospect,  Suck  Spring,  Diamond  Hill,  Morgan's,  Flint 
Hill,  Mt.  Hermon,  Shady  Grove,  Staunton,  Thaxton, 
Big  Island,  Hunting  Creek,  Mt.  Zion.  To  Suck  Spring, 
however,  he  ministered  longest,  his  service  there  extend- 
ing over  twenty-five  years;  his  next  longest  pastorate 
was  with  the  Mt.  Olivet  Church.  If  there  could  be 
added  to  this  catalogue  the  names  of  the  churches  where 
he  helped  in  protracted  meetings,  it  would  probably 
appear  that  every  church  in  the  Strawberry  had  heard 
this  ambassador  for  God.  He  had  evangelistic  gifts,  and 


394         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

doubtless  many  "in  that  day"  will  point  to  him  as  the 
one  who  led  them  to  Christ.  As  a  pastor  he  was  a  good 
preacher  and  "mild  mannered,  magnetic,  approachable, 
thoughtful,  sympathetic,  and  friendly  to  all,  saints  and 
sinners."  His  bent  for  business,  which  he  followed  in 
earlier  years,  was  recognized  by  his  fellow-citizens  in 
after  years,  for  they  often  came  to  him  for  advice  and 
urged  him  once  to  run  for  the  House  of  Delegates  and 
once  for  the  State  Senate.  These  invitations  did  not 
attract  him,  for  his  heart  was  in  a  higher  calling.  For 
several  sessions  he  presided  with  dignity  as  the  moderator 
of  the  Strawberry  Association. 

For  two  years  before  the  end  he  suffered  from  heart 
trouble,  and  this  disease  caused  his  sudden  death.  On 
Friday  afternoon,  November  13,  1913,  he  was  in  Bed- 
ford City  until  five  o'clock.  After  conducting  his  family 
worship  at  nine  o'clock,  he  was  in  the  act  of  retiring 
when  in  a  moment  the  end  came.  Although  the  day  of 
the  funeral  and  burial  was  rainy,  a  large  company 
gathered  at  his  residence,  and  a  procession  almost  a  mile 
long  followed  the  body  to  its  last  resting  place,  in  Oak- 
wood  Cemetery,  Bedford  City.  The  sermon  was 
preached  by  Rev.  J.  A.  Earnhardt,  who  was  assisted  in 
the  service  by  Rev.  C.  T.  Kincannon.  Mr.  Luck  was  sur- 
vived by  his  widow  (nee  Georgia  Fizer)  and  six  sons 
and  one  daughter,  namely:  George,  Manly,  Alva, 
Paschal,  Gilbert,  Calvin,  and  Estelle. 


AUGUSTUS  BEVERLY  WOODFIN 

183&-1913 

On  December  2,  1833,  a  company  of  eleven,  going 
forth,  in  the  main,  from  the  Second  Baptist  Church, 
organized  the  Third  Baptist  Church,  of  Richmond, 
known  to-day  as  the  Grace  Street  Baptist  Church. 
Among  this  little  band  were  Mr.  and  Mrs.  George  Wood- 
fin.  Mr.  Woodfin  was  a  man  of  high  character  and  rare 
intelligence,  who  wielded  a  strong  religious  influence. 
He  served  in  the  War  of  1812.  His  wife  was  a  woman 
of  deep  piety.  He  was  a  native  of  Prince  Edward 
County,  but  spent  most  of  his  life  in  Richmond.  About 
twenty-one  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  Grace 
Street  Church,  Mr.  Woodfin  was  one  of  those  who  helped 
to  organize  the  Leigh  Street  Baptist  Church.  He  died  in 
Powhatan  County  in  1864.  Of  these  parents,  on  March 
21,  1838,  Augustus  Beverly  Woodfin  was  born,  in  Rich- 
mond, Va.  His  student  life  began  when  he  was  only 
four  years  old,  in  a  little  school  conducted  by  a  Miss 
Smithers.  When  he  was  about  twelve  he  became  a  pupil 
in  Mr.  David  Turner's  "somewhat  famous  classical 
school."  Later  he  went  to  two  other  similar  schools,  one 
taught  by  E.  W.  Cone  and  the  other  by  W.  H.  Chase. 
From  his  sixteenth  to  his  nineteenth  year  he  was  deputy 
clerk  of  the  Circuit  Court,  of  Henrico  County,  and  of  the 
Hustings  Court,  of  Petersburg.  "In  these  positions  he 
was  brought  under  the  influence  of  some  of  the  greatest 
lawyers  Virginia  has  ever  produced,  an  influence  dis- 
tinctly educational."  In  1857  he  entered  Richmond  Col- 
lege, and  in  1861  graduated  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Arts,  the  other  members  of  the  class  being  R.  R. 

395 


396         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Bailey,  C.  W.  Parish,  Geo.  M.  Leftwich,  R.  S.  Lindsay, 
John  M.  Pilcher,  Geo.  W.  Prince,  Wm.  H.  Williams,  and 
A.  Peyton  Woodfin.  Six  of  this  nine  were  from  Rich- 
mond, and  four  of  this  six  became  preachers.  While 
Mr.  Woodfin  was  at  college  a  school  of  Modern  Lan- 
guages was  established,  the  professor  for  two  years  being 
William  Staughton  Chase,  son  of  Dr.  Ira  Chase  and 
nephew  of  Dr.  William  Staughton.  During  these  early 
days  Mr.  Woodfin,  John  M.  Pilcher,  and  T.  H.  Ellett 
were  close  friends,  and  Mr.  Pilcher  declares  that  Mr. 
Woodfin's  determination  to  become  a  minister  helped  him 
to  decide  to  enter  the  same  high  calling.  Under  the 
preaching  of  Dr.  Cornelius  Tyree  at  Grace  Street  Church, 
Mr.  Woodfin  was  converted,  and  when  his  course  at 
Richmond  College  was  completed  he  set  out,  in  the  fall 
of  1861,  for  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary 
at  Greenville,  S.  C.  The  War  interrupted  his  studies  at 
Greenville  and  he  entered  the  army,  becoming  chaplain 
of  the  61st  Regiment  of  Gordon's  Georgia  Brigade, 
Army  of  Northern  Virginia,  his  ordination  at  Muddy 
Creek,  Powhatan  County,  having  taken  place  in  October, 
1862.  He  continued  in  the  army  till  the  close  of  the  con- 
flict, and  then  taught  school  for  a  season  in  Cumberland 
County.  While  here,  on  January  12,  1865,  he  was  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Mary  Isabella  Abrahams,  the  ceremony 
being  performed  by  Dr.  Cornelius  Tyree.  As  the  result 
of  a  trip  that  Mr.  Woodfin  and  John  William  Jones  took 
through  the  Valley  of  Virginia  in  the  fall  of  1865,  Mr. 
Woodfin  became  pastor  of  the  Mt.  Crawford  and  Laurel 
Ridge  Churches,  the  former  being  not  far  from  Harrison- 
burg  and  the  latter  some  seven  miles  from  Staunton. 
During  this  pastorate  there  was  a  revival  of  far-reaching 
power  in  the  Mt.  Crawford  Church,  many  heads  of 
families  being  added  to  the  church.  While  Mr.  Woodfin 
was  on  this  field,  living  at  the  village  of  Bridge  water,  he 


AUGUSTUS  BEVERLY  WOODFIN        397 

and  George  B.  Taylor,  who  was  pastor  at  Staunton, 
enjoyed  a  fellowship  that  was  helpful  to  both  of  them. 
Once  when  Woodfin  was  a  guest  in  Taylor's  home,  at 
the  supper  table  the  host  said :  "Brother  Woodfin,  have 
some  more  preserves."  And  the  answer  came :  "Thank 
you,  Brother  Taylor,  I  will  take  some,  but  I  have  not 
had  any  yet."  One  year  when  the  Association  was  meet- 
ing with  their  church,  Mr.  Woodfin  and  his  wife  enter- 
tained some  twenty-five  guests.  "Only  the  older  guests 
occupied  beds;  the  others  rested  on  ticks  filled  with  hay 
laid  about  the  rooms.  Perhaps  little  sleeping  was  done, 
as  Dr.  W.  F.  Broaddus  was  in  the  company,  and  on  such 
occasions  he  usually  entertained  his  roommates  all  night." 
In  December,  1868,  after  a  brief  pastorate  at  Coving- 
ton,  Ky.,  he  took  charge  of  the  St.  Francis  Street  Church, 
Mobile,  Ala.  With  this  important  and  influential  church 
he  remained  about  six  years,  his  work  being  highly 
successful.  There  were  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
added  to  the  membership,  and  the  meeting-house  was 
enlarged  at  a  cost  of  $30,000.  After  two  years  as  pastor 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Columbia,  S.  C,  he  became 
chaplain  of  the  University  of  Virginia.  The  two  years 
at  the  University  were  thoroughly  enjoyed  by  Dr.  Wood- 
fin  and  by  the  people  to  whom  he  preached.  Dr.  Woodfin 
was  scholarly  in  his  aptitudes,  and  a  great  lover  of  books, 
and  fond  of  thinking  through  religious  and  philosophical 
problems.  One  of  the  professors,  a  regular  attendant 
upon  the  chapel  exercises,  greatly  annoyed  Dr.  Woodfin 
by  sitting  through  the  sermon  with  his  face  in  his  hands. 
A  tactful  suggestion  from  Dr.  Woodfin  was  cordially 
received  by  the  distinguished  teacher,  who  buried  his  face 
in  his  hands  no  more.  He  was  a  careful  sermonizer  and  a 
graceful  speaker.  An  extract  from  a  tribute  to  him,  from 
the  pen  of  Dr.  W.  R.  L.  Smith,  written  after  Dr.  Wood- 
fin's  death,  may  well  be  introduced  here.  Dr.  Smith  said  : 


398         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

"What  a  preacher!  Not  for  occasions,  which  hampered 
him  by  inevitable  artificiality,  but  for  the  usual  and  quiet 
ministration.  A  wizard  was  he  in  capturing  the  hidden 
meanings  of  a  passage.  His  interpreting  faculty  gave 
challenge  to  a  text  like  a  spiritual  bandit;  his  analysis 
was  a  divine  surgery,  and  the  sermon  structure  was  a 
gem  of  the  homiletic  art.  Ah,  there  was  a  sermonizer 
whose  craftsmanship  was  the  despair  of  so  many  of  his 
brethren.  He  was  with  me  in  meetings  in  Lynchburg, 
1888.  One  discourse  on  l Justification  by  Faith'  was  a 
masterpiece.  Thought,  passion,  and  diction  blended  in 
triumphant  oratory.  Uncommon  power  was  on  him,  and 
he  carried  the  burden  of  great  ideas  with  the  agility  and 
grace  of  an  athlete.  It  was  one  of  the  rarest  sermons  I 
ever  heard." 

From  the  University,  Dr.  Woodfin  returned  to  Ala- 
bama, becoming  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  of 
Montgomery.  From  here  he  moved,  in  1884,  to  Hamp- 
ton, where  he  remained  for  some  twenty  years  as  pastor 
of  the  Baptist  Church  of  that  town.  This  was  the  longest 
and  perhaps  the  most  useful  of  his  several  pastorates. 
When  he  went  to  Hampton  the  church  reported  a  mem- 
bership of  142,  and  before  he  left  the  enrollment  had 
reached  the  high  mark  of  408.  Failing  health  made  it 
necessary  for  him  to  take  a  field  where  the  burdens  were 
less  heavy,  and  so  he  accepted  a  call  to  Waynesboro,  a 
beautiful  town  in  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  This  was  his 
last  pastorate.  After  some  eight  years  here  he  was 
obliged  to  give  up  active  work.  A  surgical  operation 
was  not  thoroughly  successful,  and  the  three  remaining 
years  were  full  of  suffering,  but  he  was  patient  to  the 
end.  Much  of  this  time  he  spent  in  the  home  of  his  son, 
Mr.  G.  W.  Woodfin,  in  Atlanta.  Here  his  summons  to 
depart  came  December  24,  1913.  According  to  his 
request  his  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  the  East  Hill  Ceme- 


AUGUSTUS  BEVERLY  WOODFIN        399 

tery,  Salem,  Va.  His  wife  and  five  children,  namely: 
Mrs.  John  Lewis  Cobbs,  Mr.  George  Wyclyffe  Woodfin, 
Mrs.  Edgar  Lyle  Justice,  Mrs.  George  R.  Hood,  and 
Mr.  Paul  Beverly  Woodfin,  survived  him. 

Besides  his  work  for  his  particular  church,  Dr.  Wood- 
fin  took  an  active  part  in  the  work  of  the  denomination. 
He  was  Vice-President  of  the  Virginia  Orphanage 
Trustees,  a  member  of  the  Educational  Commission,  and, 
in  1909,  Vice-President  of  the  General  Association  of 
Virginia.  He  was  a  Mason.  He  loved  his  brethren,  and 
was  fond  of  their  company.  He  was  genial,  and  ready 
to  hear  and  to  tell  a  good  story.  To  quote  again  from 
Dr.  Smith :  "His  presence  was  sunshine,  his  mind  was 
intellectual  keenness,  and  his  heart  was  a  magazine  of 
human  charities.  He  was  the  type  of  man  who  com- 
mands confidence  to  the  end,  and  for  whom  admiration 
never  limps.  He  was  more  diffident  than  his  abilities 
justified.  The  nature  of  his  high  endowment  would 
easily  have  sustained  more  self-assertion."  He  greatly 
admired  the  noble  women  whom  he  knew,  and  was 
always  a  favorite  with  the  women.  This  does  not 
mean  that  he  was  not  vigorous  in  thought  and  fearless 
in  his  contention  for  the  truth,  for  he  was;  but  he  was 
courtly  in  his  grace  and  gentle  in  word  and  manner,  and 
he  was  comely  in  person,  and  always  most  scrupulously 
neat  and  careful  in  his  dress.  Yet  he  was  always  popular 
with  men,  and  held  his  own  in  a  gathering  of  men, 
whether  it  was  with  timely  anecdote  or  able  discussion. 
His  power  as  a  preacher  has  already  been  mentioned,  but 
it  may  be  well  to  quote  yet  another  testimony  on  this 
matter.  Dr.  C.  T.  Herndon,  in  his  obituary,  says: 
"Dr.  Woodfin  was  a  preacher  of  unusual  ability.  He 
had  a  strong  and  well-furnished  mind.  He  thought 
clearly  and  had  the  power  to  express  his  thoughts  in  lucid 
and  strong  English.  He  loved  to  preach,  and  was  a  tire- 
less sermon  maker." 


JAMES  MAGRUDER  THOMAS 
1862-1914 

On  the  long  roll  of  beloved  Baptist  preachers  the  name 
of  Rev.  James  Mag-ruder  Thomas  is  affectionately  and 
with  tender  memories  revered  by  those  who  knew  him 
best.  James  Magruder  Thomas  was  born  January  25, 
1862,  at  Severn,  Va.,  and  died  at  Zanoni,  Va.,  January 
14,  1914.  Between  these  years  the  impress  of  his  charac- 
ter, so  full  of  generosity,  courtesy,  and  cheer,  is  indelibly 
written  on  the  hearts  of  loving  relatives  and  a  broad 
circle  of  admiring  friends.  Most  of  his  life  was  lived  in 
the  immediate  section  of  lower  Gloucester  County,  Vir- 
ginia. Brother  Thomas  always  smilingly  informed 
strangers  that  he  came  from  "Guinea,"  and  with  mingled 
pride  and  humor  he  told  of  this  native  homeland. 

Provincially,  "Guinea"  is  known  as  the  fishermen's 
country,  down  in  Tidewater  where  the  salt  tides  indent 
the  shores.  The  broad  York  River,  the  Mobjack  Bay, 
and  the  Severn  River  hem  in  these  folks,  and  habitually 
the  men  follow  the  water  as  naturally  as  the  fish  swim 
to  and  fro.  In  the  Severn  River  section  the  Thomas 
family  is  most  prominent.  For  many  generations  their 
success  and  their  homes  here  have  made  them  well 
known.  Of  all  the  salt-water  fishermen,  Captain  James 
Thomas,  father  of  Rev.  J.  M.  Thomas,  is  to-day  remem- 
bered as  the  most  prosperous.  His  family  consisted  of 
twelve  children,  five  girls  and  seven  sons.  In  time 
Brother  Jim's  six  brothers  followed  the  water,  he  alone 
choosing  a  different  career.  So  handsome  in  appearance, 
so  courtly  in  manner,  in  early  manhood  he  was  familiarly 
referred  to  as  "good-looking  Jim" — an  epitaph  which 

400 


JAMES  MAGRUDER  THOMAS  401 

followed  among  his  friends  during  a  lifetime.  He  was 
a  gentleman  "to  the  manner  born,"  his  tastes  were 
aesthetic,  his  mind  alert  and  appreciative  as  a  student. 
His  fondness  for  books,  for  music,  and  study  forecast  his 
life  work.  Who  knows  but  that  his  ideals  were  wrought 
in  the  little  one-room  schoolhouse,  taught  "in  the  long 
ago"  by  Miss  Alice  J.  Thornton,  a  faithful,  untiring 
teacher,  whom  lower  Gloucester  County  may  wisely 
honor  for  her  sacrifice  to  those  students  who  in  later 
years  have  become  prominent  in  citizenship!  Near  by 
this  old  school  stands  Union  Baptist  Church — both  strong 
factors  in  the  educational  and  spiritual  development  of 
James  M.  Thomas.  There  is  doubt  of  whether  any 
serious  love  affair  marked  his  life.  He  was  a  gifted 
singer,  and  at  one  time  a  favorite  daughter  of  a  Baptist 
pastor  and  young  Jim  were  often  thought  to  have  btcn 
sweethearts.  She  presided  at  the  church  organ  and  he 
led  in  the  singing.  Since  Brother  Thomas  never  married 
there  is  no  one  to  know  if  his  heart's  love  was  ever  lost 
or  won. 

When  he  was  a  splendid  boy  of  fourteen  years  of  age 
he  accepted  Christ  as  his  Saviour.  His  baptism  took 
place  a  few  miles  from  his  home  at  Sagey  Creek,  an  inlet 
of  York  River,  in  August,  1876.  He  united  with  Union 
Baptist  Church  and  was  long  an  esteemed  member  in 
Gloucester  County,  Virginia.  During  a  tent-meeting 
held  by  the  Friends'  Holiness  Association  during  the 
summer  of  1899,  scores  of  church  members  made  new 
consecration,  and  Brother  James  Thomas  declared  at 
these  humble  services  he  heard  the  call  to  preach  the 
gospel.  Following  his  conviction,  in  1900  Brother 
Thomas  entered  Richmond  College,  where  he  remained 
two  years.  In  1902  he  entered  the  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  received  his  first  call  to 
preach  in  1903.  In  1905  he  was  ordained  at  Louisville, 


26 


402         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Ky.,  accepting  the  work  of  Nansemar  Baptist  Church 
and  the  chapels  in  Charles  County,  Maryland. 

On  the  third  Sunday  in  June,  1913,  Brother  Thomas 
was  taken  ill — paralyzed — and  fell  in  the  pulpit  after 
preaching  his  sermon.  Continuing  sick  until  January 
3,  1914,  at  his  sister's  home  (Mrs.  R.  C.  Smith)  at 
Zanoni,  in  Gloucester  County,  he  died.  The  simple 
funeral  services  were  conducted  by  Rev.  S.  T.  Habel, 
then  pastor  of  Union  Baptist  Church,  and  the  beloved 
form  was  laid  away  in  the  shadow  of  the  old  church  he 
cherished  in  " Guinea" — the  scene  of  happy  boyhood  days. 

Daisy  Rowe  Craig. 


JOSEPH  FRANCIS  BILLINGSLEY 
183^-1913 

John  Ashcum  Billingsley  was  born  in  St.  Mary's 
County,  Maryland,  April  24,  1770,  and  died  at  his  home, 
"Salem,"  in  Spottsylvania  County,  Virginia,  August  1, 
1837.  His  son,  John  Ashcum  Billingsley,  was  born  at 
"Salem"  on  February  11,  1817,  and  died  April  12,  1893. 
Joseph  Francis  Billingsley,  one  of  sixteen  children,  was 
the  son  of  John  Ashcum  Billingsley  and  his  second  wife, 
who  was,  before  her  marriage,  Miss  Johnson.  He 
was  born  at  "Salem,"  February  10,  1839.  These  three 
men,  of  three  generations,  were  Baptist  preachers.  A 
sketch  of  the  first  of  this  trio  is  found  in  the  "Lives  of 
Virginia  Baptist  Ministers,"  First  Series,  and  in  the 
Fourth  Series  is  a  sketch  of  the  second,  and  now,  accord- 
ing to  the  prophecy  in  the  Fourth  Series,  here  is  a  sketch 
of  the  third. 

With  such  an  ancestry  and  brought  up  in  an  atmos- 
phere of  piety,  it  is  not  surprising  that  Joseph  Francis 
Billingsley  became  a  member  of  Hebron  Church  at  the 
age  of  ten  and  later  an  earnest  preacher.  Dr.  Beale  says 
that  "in  the  homes  in  which  his  early  years  were  spent 
the  altar  of  prayer  was  sacredly  maintained  and  the  Bible 
was  daily  read."  From  the  vicinity  of  King  George 
Court  House,  where  much  of  his  early  life  was  passed, 
he  went  to  reside  in  Washington  City.  While  living 
there,  although  not  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry,  he 
"engaged  actively  in  evangelistic  services,  often  exhort- 
ing crowds  on  the  street."  In  1895  he  returned  to  Vir- 
ginia to  live,  making  his  home  in  Westmoreland  County 
with  two  of  his  married  daughters.  On  October  1,  1898, 

403 


404         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

he  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the  Pope's  Creek  Baptist 
Church,  and  on  November  26,  1899,  was  ordained  at  the 
Hebron  Baptist  Church.  On  this  occasion  the  presbytery 
was  composed  of  these  ministers :  Rev.  Dr.  L.  J.  Haley, 
Rev.  W.  J.  Decker,  and  Rev.  E.  P.  Hawkins.  His  work 
as  a  preacher  was  done  in  the  Hermon  Association, 
where  he  was  pastor,  first  and  last,  of  these  churches: 
Belle  Air,  Travelers'  Rest,  Providence,  Mt.  Hermon,  and 
Mt.  Horeb.  The  last  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  the 
Northern  Neck  of  Virginia,  where  he  preached  as  oppor- 
tunity offered  and  rendered  other  ministerial  services. 
He  died  at  the  home  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Belfield,  at 
Stratford,  Va.,  December  26,  1913,  and  the  body  was 
laid  to  rest  at  Providence  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
Westmoreland  County,  Virginia.  At  the  very  time  of 
his  death  the  funeral  of  his  brother,  a  gallant  Confeder- 
ate captain,  was  taking  place  in  an  adjoining  county. 

Of  Mr.  Billingsley,  Dr.  Beale  says :  "As  a  speaker  he 
was  clear,  entertaining,  and  effective,  and  possessed  a 
commanding  and  vigorous  fervor  and  a  distinct  and 
resonant  voice.  He  was  wont  to  carry  with  him,  as  a 
sort  of  vade  mecum,  a  scrapbook  in  which  were  recorded 
incidents  which  he  might  use  in  his  sermons,  impressive 
illustrations,  and  literary  gems."  He  was  tall  and  of 
heavy  build.  His  manner  was  quick  and  alert.  He  was 
a  man  of  strong  will  and  stern  demeanor,  yet  his  was  a 
loving  disposition.  He  had  a  keen  sense  of  humor  and 
knew  how  to  rise  above  the  petty  annoyances  of  life.  He 
was  generous  almost  to  a  fault,  and  a  self-sacrificing  and 
loving  father.  He  was  of  strong  likes  and  dislikes,  and 
was  fearless  in  his  denunciation  of  that  which  he  did  not 
approve.  He  was  most  loyal  to  his  friends  and  charitable 
to  those  whose  ways  he  did  not  endorse.  He  was  a 
typical  man's  man,  his  few  faults  serving  as  a  back- 
ground to  bring  out  more  fully  his  excellent  traits. 


JOSEPH  FRANCIS  BILLINGSLEY        405 

His  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  on  November  4, 
1856,  and  who  survived  him,  was,  before  her  marriage, 
Miss  Almira  Virginia  Price,  daughter  of  Abner  B.  Price. 
Of  the  seven  children  of  this  marriage,  three,  namely: 
Almira  Virginia,  Frank  Connor,  and  Mary  Mildred 
(wife  of  James  T.  Trew,  Baynesville,  Va.),  have  passed 
away.  Those  still  living  are  Laura  Kate,  the  wife  of 
George  W.  Henderson,  Washington,  D.  C. ;  Clara  Belle, 
the  wife  of  David  C.  Belfield,  Stratford,  Va. ;  Leslie 
Ogle,  Washington ;  Chastain  M.,  Philadelphia. 


GEORGE  COOPER 

1841-1914 

"Scotland  and  Canada  bore  him,  England  and  Vir- 
ginia received  him,  Philadelphia,  The  City  of  Brotherly 
Love,'  holds  him."  On  December  27,  1812,  near  the 
village  of  Dunse,  Berwickshire,  Scotland,  James  Cooper 
was  born.  After  having  been  for  seven  years  an  appren- 
tice at  the  cabinet-maker's  trade,  in  the  town  of  Kelso, 
where  the  saintly  Horatius  Bonar  lived,  he  moved  to 
Edinburgh.  Here  he  decided  to  become  a  minister,  and 
here  he  was  married,  in  1839,  to  Miss  Jessie  Sutherland. 
The  next  year,  his  views  as  to  baptism  having  changed, 
he  left  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  in  September,  1840, 
was  baptized  in  the  Charlotte  Chapel  by  Rev.  Christopher 
Anderson,  author  of  the  "Annals  of  the  English  Bible." 
On  the  tenth  day  of  the  following  December  there  was 
born  to  Mr.  Cooper  and  his  wife  a  son,  who  was  given 
his  grandfather's  name,  George.  After  having  pursued 
his  studies  for  several  years,  part  of  this  time  sitting  at 
the  feet  of  the  famous  Sir  William  Hamilton,  in  1843 
Mr.  Cooper  emigrated  to  Canada.  Here  he  spent  thirty- 
six  years,  being  a  successful  and  esteemed  pastor  and 
leader  among  the  Canadian  Baptists,  and  then,  having 
returned  to  his  native  land,  on  Sunday,  January  16,  1881, 
he  passed  away. 

At  Woodstock,  Ontario,  Canada,  where  his  father  had 
much  to  do  with  the  establishment  of  Woodstock  College, 
George  Cooper  was  converted,  and  baptized  by  his  father, 
December  27,  1857.  Here  there  began  a  friendship 
between  John  Peddie,  one  of  the  elder  Cooper's  students, 
and  George  Cooper,  a  friendship  which  was  to  last 

406 


GEORGE  COOPER  407 

through  the  years  and  until  broken  by  death.  From 
Woodstock  young  Cooper  passed  to  Toronto  University, 
where  he  graduated,  and  was  the  medalist  in  the  Greek 
and  Latin  classics.  In  pursuance  of  his  plan  to  make 
teaching  his  life  work,  he  became  a  tutor  in  this  Uni- 
versity, under  Dr.  McCaul,  but  in  July,  1864,  in  one  week 
his  mother  and  little  sister,  Maggie,  were  laid  low  in 
death,  and  this  bitter  experience  led  the  young  man  to 
turn  his  mind  towards  the  ministry.  Madison  (now  Col- 
gate) University,  Hamilton,  N.  Y.,  became  his  theo- 
logical alrtw  mater,  and  after  graduating  there,  on  June 
1,  1866,  he  was  ordained  at  North  Attleboro,  Mass. 
Here  he  began  his  work  as  pastor,  and  on  June  12,  1867, 
was  married  to  Miss  Sarah  Elizabeth  Cole,  of  South 
Niagara  Falls,  Canada,  the  daughter  of  Jesse  and  Ann 
Hughes  Cole.  From  Attleboro  he  passed  to  the  pastor- 
ate of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Gloversville,  N.  Y.,  and 
then,  after  serving  the  First  Church  (now  Epiphany), 
West  Philadelphia,  and  the  Williamsport  (Pennsylvania) 
Church,  on  the  second  Sunday  in  June,  1885,  he  became 
pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  Va. 

His  Richmond  pastorate,  which  continued  until  the 
last  Sabbath  of  December,  1903,  covered  the  years  of 
Dr.  Cooper's  vigorous  manhood  and  was  the  most  dis- 
tinguished service  of  his  ministry.  'Throughout  this 
long  and  exacting  pastorate,  and  with  conspicuous  zeal 
and  devotion,  Dr.  Cooper  cheerfully  and  vigilantly 
shepherded  his  large  flock,  literally  knowing  and  calling 
each  by  name.  Though  he  visited  and  ministered  to  his 
own  people  in  season  and  out  of  season,  and  to  an  extent 
that  greatly  taxed  his  time  and  energy,  his  warm  and 
sympathetic  heart  could  not  resist  the  appeals,  voiceless, 
often,  of  sickness,  distress,  and  sorrow,  though  they  came 
from  the  community  at  large.  His  prayers  at  the  bedside 
of  the  sick,  and  on  the  occasions  of  the  last  sad  offices 


408         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

for  the  dead,  were  impressively  and  inimitably  tender  and 
felicitous."  The  First  Baptist  Church  is  one  of  the  most 
historic  among  the  Baptist  churches  of  the  South.  It 
was  founded  in  1780,  and  has  had  as  pastors  dis- 
tinguished men ;  to  have  served  such  a  church  faithfully 
for  almost  two  decades  is  indeed  a  worthy  record. 

In  the  denominational  life  of  Virginia,  Dr.  Cooper 
bore  an  active  part.  Only  a  few  weeks  after  his  pastor- 
ate at  the  First  Church  began,  he  made  an  address  at  the 
Richmond  Sunday  School  Association  at  Leigh  Street  to 
the  children,  "using  a  wordless  book  with  four  leaves — 
black,  red,  white,  and  gold — with  which  he  symbolized 
the  blackness  of  sin,  the  cleansing  blood  of  Christ,  the 
whiteness  of  redeemed  souls,  and  the  golden  streets, 
crowns,  and  harps  of  the  heavenly  home."  Not  long 
after  this,  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  Dover  Association 
at  Liberty  Church,  New  Kent  County,  he  took  part  in 
the  discussions  and  preached  "at  the  stand."  For  years 
he  was  a  member  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  and 
Chairman  of  the  Committee  on  China  Missions.  He  was 
President  of  the  State  Mission  Board  and  a  member  of 
the  Richmond  College  Board  of  Trustees.  He  was 
closely  connected  with  the  establishment  of  the  Baptist 
Orphanage  of  Virginia,  being  the  chairman  of  a  com- 
mittee appointed,  upon  his  resolution,  "to  secure  an 
expression  on  the  subject  from  the  various  churches  and 
Associations  represented  in  this  body,  receive  bids  for 
location,  hold  in  trust  moneys  and  other  contributions, 
and  report  to  the  next  meeting  of  this  Association  such 
conclusions  and  plans  as  may  be  deemed  by  them  wise 
and  necessary  to  the  end  proposed."  This  was  an  impor- 
tant step  in  the  establishment  of  the  Orphanage,  and  on 
July  1,  1892,  the  institution  was  opened  at  Salem. 
Besides  the  work  Dr.  Cooper  did  in  Virginia,  he  was  on 
the  governing  boards  of  Bucknell  University  and  Crozer 


GEORGE  COOPER  409 

Theological  Seminary,  and  took  part  in  the  work  of  the 
Southern  Baptist  Convention;  he  was  the  preacher  of 
the  Convention  sermon  at  the  session  in  Louisville,  in 
1887. 

From  a  boy  he  was  fond  of  a  horse,  and  while  he  lived 
in  Virginia  he  often  spent  his  vacation,  or  a  good  part  of 
it,  on  a  horseback  tour  through  the  mountains.  On  these 
trips  he  had  many  amusing  experiences.  Since  he  was 
attired  in  "short  riding  trousers,  a  wide-brimmed  hat," 
and  wore  no  coat,  there  was  nothing  to  indicate  that  he 
was  a  preacher,  and  to  his  great  amusement  he  was  taken 
"for  a  drummer,  a  fruit-tree  seller,  a  guano  man,  a  col- 
porteur, and  a  city  tramp."  On  these  trips  he  usually 
preached  every  Sunday,  and  on  one  trip,  when  he 
traveled  three  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  when  he  was 
gone  five  Sundays,  he  preached  twice  every  Sunday,  save 
one.  With  all  of  his  fondness  for  out-of-doors  life,  and 
his  wonderful  activity  as  a  pastor,  he  was  still  a  student 
with  scholarly  aptitudes.  Dr.  John  Gordon  said  of  him 
that  "as  a  Greek  scholar  he  had  few  peers,"  and  told  how 
a  few  weeks  before  his  death  he  wrote  to  him,  saying: 
"Please  go  into  your  Greek  lexicon  (mine  are  all  boxed 
up)  and  get  for  me  the  history  and  use  of  this  word. 
.  .  .  I  had  rather  have  it  than  the  best  meal  they  can 
give  me."  Once  in  the  Richmond  Baptist  Ministers'  Con- 
ference the  discussion  was  about  the  "Public  Reading  of 
the  Scripture,"  and  the  paper  was  read  by  Dr.  Cooper. 
After  he  read  his  paper,  which  "was  a  masterpiece,"  he 
seemed  surprised  when  the  ministers  all  agreed  that  he 
was  "exceptionally  skillful  and  impressive  in  the  reading 
of  the  Bible."  Dr.  Cooper  was  warm-hearted,  cordial  in 
his  manner,  and  companionable.  Nor  did  he  win  the 
esteem  of  those  of  his  own  denomination  only.  Upon 
his  resignation  at  Jenkintown,  Pa.,  the  rector  of  the 
Episcopal  Church  wrote  to  express  his  regret.  In  his 


410         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

letter  he  said :  "You  have  been  a  leader  and  father  to 
us,  and  your  special  place  simply  can  not  be  filled.  I  have 
to  think  of  the  gap  it  means  in  our  common  work  for  our 
Master  in  this  community,  but  at  least  there  is  the 
memory  left  of  a  most  perfect  and  delightful  coopera- 
tion— of  that  kind  that  ought  to  be  always,  but  that  too 
often  human  nature  and  perhaps  the  odium  theologicum, 
too,  prevent."  After  Dr.  Cooper's  death  Dr.  Strand,  the 
Catholic  priest  in  the  same  city,  spoke  beautifully  from 
the  pulpit  about  him  and  asked  his  congregation  to 
remember  him  in  their  prayers. 

After  resigning  the  First  Church,  Richmond,  Dr. 
Cooper  was  pastor  for  a  season  at  Media,  Pa.,  and  then 
came  his  last  charge,  which  covered  over  seven  years,  at 
Jenkintown.  In  the  fall  of  1912  his  health  began  to  fail. 
After  a  trip  to  Montreal,  Quebec,  and  Lake  George, 
walking,  of  which  exercise  he  had  always  been  very  fond, 
quickly  fatigued  him,  and  he  complained  of  pain  in  his 
limbs.  Neither  a  specialist  nor  a  sanitarium  in  Atlantic 
City  brought  relief,  and  when  he  wanted  to  go  to  Ber- 
muda, the  doctors  deeming  this  unwise,  Richmond  was 
decided  on.  Here,  in  the  home  of  his  son,  Mr.  J.  Homer 
Cooper,  he  passed  from  earth,  on  January  19,  1914. 
Funeral  services  were  held  in  the  First  Church,  Rich- 
mond, and  in  the  Chestnut  Street  Baptist  Church,  Phila- 
delphia. In  Richmond  the  services  were  conducted  by 
Rev.  Dr.  Geo.  W.  McDaniel  and  Rev.  Dr.  James  Nelson. 
In  Philadelphia  the  exercises  were  conducted  by  these 
ministers:  George  D.  Adams,  A.  J.  Rowland,  Charles 
Hastings  Dodd,  J.  G.  Walker,  John  Gordon,  David 
Spencer,  George  Young,  and  Mr.  David  P.  Leas. 

Dr.  Cooper  is  survived  by  his  wife  and  three  of  his 
children,  namely :  James  Homer  Cooper,  Mrs.  Walter 
Sebastian,  and  George  Cooper,  Jr.  A  daughter,  Lelia, 
died  in  1875. 


WILLIAM  BONNIE  DAUGHTRY 

1874-1914 

On  June  13,  1874,  at  Franklin,  Va.,  William  Bonnie 
Daughtry  was  born,  his  parents  being  Thomas  Daughtry 
and  Cherry  Carr.  At  the  early  age  of  about  ten  he  united 
with  the  church,  and  when  only  sixteen  years  old  was 
Superintendent  of  the  Sunday  school.  He  spent  four 
sessions  at  Richmond  College  and  two  at  Crozer  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  graduating  at  Crozer  in  1901.  On 
December  26,  1899,  at  Beaver  Dam  Church,  Isle  of 
Wight  County,  Virginia,  he  was  ordained  to  the  gospel 
ministry,  the  presbytery  being  composed  of  these  minis- 
ters :  J.  L.  Lawless,  J.  F.  Love,  J.  T.  Bowden,  and  J.  E. 
Jones.  After  being  pastor  for  some  two  years  and  four 
months  of  the  Eastville  and  Cape  Charles  Churches, 
Accomac  Association,  he  became  pastor  in  the  Concord 
and  Appomattox  Associations,  his  churches  being  Black- 
stone,  Jonesboro,  Burkeville,  and  Bagby  Memorial.  His 
next  work  was  also  in  the  Concord  Association,  and, 
before  he  left  Virginia  to  become  pastor  in  North  Caro- 
lina, he  served  these  churches,  in  the  Concord :  Meherrin, 
Mt.  Carmel,  Tussekiah,  Union  Grove,  Victoria,  and  Mt. 
Zion.  After  about  two  years  at  Plymouth,  N.  C,  he 
accepted  the  care  of  the  church  at  Tarboro,  N.  C.  He 
preached  only  one  sermon  at  Tarboro,  when  he  was 
stricken  down  with  pneumonia,  and  after  an  illness  of 
one  week  passed  away.  His  death  occurred  January  15,  ' 
1914.  On  Saturday,  January  17,  the  body  was  laid  to 
rest  at  the  Beaver  Dam  Church,  near  Carrsville,  Va.,  the 
funeral  services  being  conducted  by  these  ministers: 
G.  C.  Duncan,  J.  T.  McCutcheon,  W.  T.  Clark,  and 

411 


412         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

R.  A.  McFarland.  His  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married 
November  27,  1901,  and  whose  maiden  name  was  Miss 
Delia  Poole  (the  daughter  of  Paschal  and  Henrietta 
Poole),  and  two  children,  William  Bonnie  and  Henrietta, 
survive  him.  He  was  five  feet,  eleven  and  a  half  inches 
tall,  and  weighed  from  165  to  175  pounds.  His  com- 
plexion was  fair,  his  eyes  and  hair  brown.  Until  his  fatal 
illness  his  health  was  almost  perfect. 


JOHN  RICHARD  THOMAS 
1850-1914 

Baltimore  was  the  birthplace  and  for  some  years  the 
home  of  John  Richard  Thomas.  He  first  saw  the  light 
March  5,  1850.  His  educational  preparation  for  life  was 
secured  at  the  public  schools  of  the  city  of  Baltimore. 
He  was  a  Christian  from  an  early  age,  being  very  active, 
for  some  time,  in  the  Methodist  Church.  About  1884 
he  was  baptized  in  the  Riverside  Church,  Baltimore,  by 
Rev.  W.  J.  Nicoll.  He  served  this  church  for  several 
years  as  a  deacon,  and  then  entered  the  ministry.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-two  he  was  married  to  Miss  Elizabeth 
Durmn.  She  and  six  children  survive  him.  In  the 
church  where  he  was  baptized  he  was  ordained,  on  Janu- 
ary 8,  1893,  and  his  first  regular  charge  was  the  Nanje- 
moy  Baptist  Church,  Charles  County,  Maryland.  Here 
he  labored  successfully  for  more  than  seven  years.  It 
seems  that  his  next  field  was  in  the  Rappahannock  Asso- 
ciation, Virginia,  being  composed  of  these  churches: 
Colonial  Beach,  Potomac,  and  Pope's  Creek.  After 
several  years  he  seems  to  have  returned  to  Maryland, 
and  either  now,  or  at  the  earlier  residence,  organized  the 
Port  Tobacco  Church.  "Through  all  kinds  of  weather 
this  man  of  God  ministered  to  the  people  of  that  village, 
driving  fifteen  miles  each  way  twice  a  month,  and  receiv- 
ing but  meager  financial  support,  but  much  joy  in 
service."  He  was  next  pastor  at  Rio  Grande,  N.  J.,  and 
he  left  this  place  to  go  to  the  church  at  East  Georgia 
Plains,  Vt.  Then  he  returned  to  New  Jersey,  taking 
charge  of  the  flock  at  Hornerstown.  His  health,  which 
seems  to  have  been  frail,  now  failing,  he  returned  to 

413 


414         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Colonial  Beach.  Here  he  ministered  to  the  church  once 
more,  and  then  the  end  came,  on  February  3,  1914.  His 
children  are  Mrs.  Carrie  E.  Wheeler,  Mrs.  W.  L. 
Southerland,  Mrs.  B.  A.  Southerland,  Mr.  J.  R.  Thomas, 
Jr.,  Prof.  W.  H.  Thomas,  and  Rev.  Charles  E.  Thomas. 


GEORGE  FRANKLIN  WILLIAMS 
1833-1914 

The  Gallatin  family,  which  gave  so  distinguished  a 
son  to  American  public  life,  boasted  an  ancestry  running 
back  to  A.  Atilius  Callatinus,  who  was  a  Roman  consul 
in  259  B.  C.  The  Williams  family,  of  which  George 
Franklin  Williams  was  a  member,  traces  its  genealogy 
through  the  Weeks'  line  back  to  534  A.  D.,  Alfred  the 
Great  and  others,  famous  in  English  history,  being  among 
their  ancestors.  Mr.  Williams  was  descended  from  the 
early  settlers  of  New  England,  and  had  among  his  for- 
bears these  colonial  governors:  Hinkney,  of  Plymouth; 
Bishop,  of  New  Haven;  Dudley  and  Bradstreet,  of 
Massachusetts.  Anne  Dudley,  the  daughter  of  Gov. 
Thomas  Dudley,  who  married  Simon  Bradstreet  (after- 
wards Governor  of  Massachusetts),  and  emigrated  with 
him  to  New  England,  wrote  poems  which  were  published 
in  London,  in  1630,  under  the  title,  "The  Tenth  Muse." 
This  volume,  which  came  out  in  a  second  edition 
(Boston,  1678),  won  for  her  the  title  of  the  first  poetess 
in  America.  Members  of  the  famous  Cotton  family,  of 
New  England,  and  of  the  Tufts  family,  that  founded 
Tufts  College,  are  also  among  Mr.  Williams'  ancestors. 
On  the  paternal  side,  the  name  John  Williams  runs  back 
through  four  generations.  His  grandfather,  John  Wil- 
liams, who  lived  from  1775  to  1834,  was  instrumental  in 
building,  in  his  town  of  Goshen,  a  Baptist  Church,  which 
he  sustained  as  long  as  he  lived.  His  paternal  grand- 
father, Rev.  Asa  Todd,  who  was  born  in  New  Haven  in 
1756,  was  one  of  the  three  pioneer  Baptist  ministers  of 
western  New  England.  During  the  week  he  strapped  his 

415 


416         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Bible  to  his  plow  handles,  and  so  prepared  his  sermons 
while  he  worked  his  farm.  He  often  walked  as  much  as 
twenty  miles  on  Sunday  to  preach,  and  on  horseback  he 
made  his  way  from  place  to  place  through  the  Connecti- 
cut Valley.  He  was  a  Revolutionary  soldier,  and  at  the 
time  of  the  evacuation  of  New  York  was  with  Washing- 
ton. Captain  Thomas  Weeks,  another  ancestor  of  Mr. 
Williams,  was  a  minuteman  at  the  battle  of  Lexington, 
and  continued  in  service  till  the  surrender  of  General 
Burgoyne  at  Saratoga. 

Mr.  Williams  was  born  at  Ashfield,  Mass.,  April  17, 
1833,  his  parents  being  John  Williams  and  Obedience 
Todd.  Although  he  was  not  baptized  until  February  6, 
1853,  when  he  received  the  ordinance  at  the  hands  of 
Rev.  E.  H.  Gray  at  Shelburne  Falls,  he  believed  that  he 
was  converted  long  before  this,  probably  in  his  ninth 
year.  From  Shelburne  Falls  Academy  he  passed  to 
Rochester  University,  where  he  received  his  Bachelor  of 
Arts  degree  in  June,  1860.  A  fondness  for  mathe- 
matics, which  began  in  his  school  days  and  lasted  to  the 
day  of  his  death,  led  him,  while  a  student  at  Rochester, 
to  try  for  a  prize  in  mathematics.  He  missed  the  prize 
by  one  point;  in  the  examination  he  indignantly  refused 
the  offer  of  a  fellow-student  to  pass  him  the  key  to  the 
problem.  He  always  regarded  this  experience  as  one  of 
the  severest  temptations  of  his  younger  days.  Even  in 
advanced  life  he  took  keen  delight  in  solving  problems  of 
higher  mathematics,  and  was  never  weary  of  working  at 
the  most  difficult  examples.  Through  the  influence  of 
Mr.  Thomas  P.  Miller,  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  who 
was  a  wealthy  banker  of  Mobile,  Ala.,  and  a  loyal  Bap- 
tist, Mr.  Williams'  feet  were  turned  to  the  South  and  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary.  Mr.  Miller 
was  greatly  interested  in  the  success  of  this  institution, 
and  gave  substantial  financial  aid  to  young  Williams, 


GEORGE  FRANKLIN  WILLIAMS         417 

whose  sister  he  had  married,  and  to  other  students  at 
Greenville.  When  he  arrived  at  Greenville,  S.  C,  to 
become  a  student  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological 
Seminary,  the  spirit  of  war  was  running  high.  Since 
he  was  from  Massachusetts,  his  trunk,  which  was  very 
heavy,  aroused  the  suspicions  of  the  proprietor  of  the 
hotel  where  he  put  up.  Not  until  it  was  made  plain  that 
the  trunk  contained  theological  books,  and  not  firearms, 
were  the  suspicions  of  the  host  allayed.  At  a  later  date, 
because  he  was  a  "Yankee,"  he  was  surrounded  by  a  local 
company  of  Confederates  and  threatened  with  arrest. 
Nor  was  he  liberated  until  his  landlady,  Mrs.  Mauldin,  a 
typical  Southern  woman  of  gentle  blood,  vouched  for 
him  to  the  captain,  her  friend. 

He  was  ordained  on  May  17,  1863,  and  his  active 
work  as  a  minister  began  in  the  Confederate  Army, 
where  he  worked,  as  a  missionary  of  the  Home  Mission 
Board,  from  1863  to  1865.  One  day  in  his  work  among 
the  soldiers  Mr.  Williams  found  a  poor  wounded  fellow 
lying  on  the  railroad  station  in  the  blazing  sun.  After 
he  began  to  minister  to  him,  what  was  his  surprise  to  find 
that  he  was  his  old  friend  Home,  of  the  Seminary  days, 
now  become  a  captain.  He  cared  for  him  for  weeks,  and 
then  Home  went  back  to  the  army.  Years  afterwards, 
when  Mr.  Williams  went  to  be  pastor  of  Ridge  Spring, 
S.  C.,  what  was  his  surprise  and  delight  to  find  his  friend 
Home  living  in  the  village  and  pastor  of  several  country 
churches  not  far  away.  At  the  close  of  the  War  he  took 
charge  of  the  Marine  Street  Mission,  Mobile,  Ala.,  which 
he  organized  into  the  Palmetto  Street  Baptist  Church,  his 
ministry  there  continuing  until  1873.  He  now  came  to 
Richmond,  Va.,  and  took  charge  of  a  mission  on  Venable 
Street.  Of  his  work  here  Dr.  J.  M.  Pilcher  says:  "His 
pastorate  of  seven  years  was  distinguished  by  zeal  and 
evangelistic  power,  which  was  an  inspiration  to  his 


418         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

fellow-pastors.  Any  other  man  would  have  been  dis- 
couraged in  the  early  years  of  the  work,  but  his  success 
encouraged  other  mission  work  in  the  city  and  made  it 
easy  for  his  successor  to  lead  the  church  to  build  a  fine 
house  in  a  better  location."  From  what  had  become  the 
Venable  Street  Baptist  Church  he  went,  in  1880,  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  church  at  Ridge  Spring,  S.  C,  but  in 
1887  he  returned  to  Virginia  to  take  charge  of  the  River- 
ton  and  Bethel  Churches,  Clarke  County.  His  home  was 
in  the  village  of  Millwood,  and  in  due  time  the  Sunday 
school,  which  he  began  in  a  storeroom,  grew  into  a 
church.  In  1888  he  returned  to  Richmond  to  engage  in 
city  mission  work.  This  organized  effort,  sustained  by 
all  the  churches,  was  inspired  by  him,  and  when  interest 
in  it  among  the  churches  died  away  he  carried  on  the 
work  at  his  own  charges,  supporting  his  family  by  means 
of  a  book  agency  that  he  established.  He  now  found 
opportunity  to  proclaim  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  on 
the  streets,  in  the  factories,  in  the  jail,  and  in  the  State 
penitentiary.  At  this  last  place  he  preached  three  times 
a  month  to  a  congregation  of  1,200  persons.  One  year 
he  had  in  this  congregation  no  less  than  66  professions 
of  faith.  He  was  the  self-appointed  guardian,  for  years, 
of  the  boys  of  the  Laurel  Industrial  Home,  and  in  the 
Cedar  Works  and  the  Locomotive  Works  he  won  for 
himself  hundreds  of  friends,  among  the  working  men, 
by  his  daily  noon  prayer-meetings.  In  1908  he  became 
Superintendent  of  the  Ex-Prisoners  Aid  Association  of 
Virginia.  In  this  position  he  remained  till  the  end  of  his 
life.  One  year,  according  to  his  annual  report  to  the 
Society,  he  had  in  hand  71  ex-convicts.  He  learned  the 
plans  of  each  one  before  the  discharge  came,  seeing  those 
who  were  in  Richmond  and  writing  to  those  in  the  con- 
vict road  camps.  He  met  each  one,  on  the  morning  of 
his  discharge,  at  the  penitentiary  at  eight  o'clock,  and 


GEORGE  FRANKLIN  WILLIAMS         419 

then  gave  them  their  breakfast,  introduced  them  to 
friends,  and  saw  them  on  the  train  if  they  were  going 
away.  The  value  of  this  work  can  be  judged  when  it  is 
known  that  Mr.  J.  Pierpont  Morgan,  upon  hearing  of  it, 
sent  for  its  support  his  check  for  $100,  and  when  the 
letters  are  read  that  came  from  friends  of  those  whom 
he  had  befriended.  A  few  sentences  from  some  of  these 
letters  are  quoted.  One  from  Brooklyn  said :  "You  have 
a  father's  and  mother's  blessing  for  interesting  yourself 
in  our  boy."  A  mother  wrote:  "I  thank  you  for  your 
interest  in  my  son.  I  did  not  think  any  one  on  earth 
cared  for  him  but  myself."  A  father  wrote:  "I  have 
hunted  everywhere  for  my  son,  but  got  no  tidings  of  him 
until  your  letter  came."  Equally  interesting  and  touch- 
ing are  the  letters  that  he  received  from  the  ex-convicts 
after  they  passed  from  beyond  his  care.  One  fellow, 
who  had  made  good,  wrote  back :  "I  have  put  in  a  solid 
month's  work  here.  ...  I  have  paid  up  my  board 
bill  in  full.  .  .  .  Tell  the  boys  up  yonder  at  the 
prison,  and  tell  them  to  pray."  Who  can  read  this  part 
of  Mr.  Williams'  history  and  not  remember  the  words: 
"I  was  in  prison  and  ye  came  unto  me.  .  .  .  Inas- 
much as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these, 
my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me"? 

The  story  of  Mr.  Williams'  service  for  the  kingdom  of 
God  in  Richmond  would  not  be  complete  without  some 
mention  of  the  Gospel  Wagon  which  he  conducted  for 
many  years.  It  was  large  enough  to  hold  some  twelve 
persons  and  a  "baby"  organ,  and  was  drawn  by  two 
white  horses.  Every  Sunday  afternoon,  when  the 
weather  was  mild,  Mr.  Williams  and  his  wife  set  out  in 
the  wagon  at  two  o'clock  and  were  gone  till  six.  They 
went  down  into  the  "slums."  Many  conversions 
occurred,  and  some  substantial  families  were  led  to  unite 


420         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

with  neighboring  churches.  Barkeepers  came  to  listen 
to  the  gospel  message,  and  others  of  low  repute  heard 
the  glad  tidings  of  salvation. 

He  died  in  Richmond,  Va.,  February  19,  1914,  and  the 
funeral  took  place  at  the  Calvary  Baptist  Church,  being 
conducted  by  his  dear  friend  and  Seminary  fellow- 
student,  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  H.  Ryland,  who  was  assisted 
in  the  service  by  Rev.  Dr.  Alfred  Bagby  and  Rev.  C.  A. 
Jenkins.  The  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  Oakwood 
Cemetery.  On  his  death  bed,  when  asked  by  his 
daughter  if  she  must  read,  with  other  passages,  the 
twenty-third  Psalm,  his  reply  was  to  read  it  as  he  had 
read  it  to  a  dying  soldier,  and  thus  the  blessed  words 
were  read  to  him,  emphasis  being  put  on  all  the  pronouns 
of  the  first  person.  His  wife,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Miss  Emma  Virginia  Woodfin,  preceded  him  to  the 
grave  September  5,  1910.  She  was  genial  in  nature,  with 
a  sweet,  lovely  face,  a  vigorous  mind,  and  a  great 
capacity  for  work.  In  the  home  her  influence  was 
strong,  and  her  children  rise  up  and  bear  witness  to  her 
wise  and  loving  training.  She  found  time  for  missionary 
work,  and  was  for  many  years  the  leader  of  the  Virginia 
Sunbeams.  As  a  memorial  of  this  work  with  the  Sun- 
beams there  has  been  established  a  school  in  Chefoo, 
China,  that  bears  her  name.  As  a  young  woman  she 
taught  a  class  in  the  Leigh  Street  Church,  exerting  a 
strong  influence  over  many  youths.  There  are  three 
ministers,  who  are  useful  to-day  for  God,  who  remember 
how  she  made  lasting  impressions  on  them  for  good 
when  they  were  boys  in  her  class.  Three  of  his  children, 
little  boys,  died  before  they  were  four  years  old.  A  son, 
George  Beverly  Williams,  and  two  daughters,  Miss 
Bertha  Belle  Williams  and  Emma  Wirt  Williams,  now 
the  wife  of  Rev.  Benjamin  D.  Gaw,  and  two  of  his 
sisters  (one  over  ninety-five  years  of  age  and  the  other 
eighty-six)  survive  him. 


HUGH  DAVIS  RAGLAND 

1840-1914 

Goochland  County,  that  narrow  and  long  county  which 
hugs  James  River  for  something  like  fifty  miles,  was  the 
birthplace  of  Hugh  Davis  Ragland,  his  home  and  field  of 
labor  for  a  large  part  of  his  life,  and  where  he  died.  He 
was  born  November  5,  1840.  When  he  was  fourteen 
years  old  he  was  converted  under  the  preaching  of  Rev. 
L.  W.  Allen,  and  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of 
the  Williams  Baptist  Church.  This  church,  organized 
in  1785  and  located  in  Louisa  County,  the  nearest  post- 
office  being  Cuckooville,  had  as  her  pastor,  in  1855,  Rev. 
Samuel  Harris.  He  became  a  colporteur  under  the 
Publication  Board  of  the  General  Association  in  1858, 
and  continued  in  this  work  until  he  entered  Richmond 
College.  As  a  boy  he  had  attended  Goochland  Academy. 
His  work  at  the  college  was  interrupted  by  the  outbreak 
of  the  Civil  War,  and  he  became  a  soldier,  serving  in  the 
ranks  until  he  was  captured  and  carried  as  a  prisoner, 
first  to  Point  Lookout  and  then  to  Elmyra,  N.  Y.  He 
preached  to  his  fellow-prisoners  and  had  the  joy  of  seeing 
many  of  them  brought  to  Christ.  Upon  the  close  of  the 
War  he  returned  to  his  native  county  to  take  up  work 
among  the  churches  there,  and  the  March  following  Lee's 
Surrender  at  Appomattox  he  was  married,  March  12, 
1866,  to  Miss  Amarintha  Perkins,  daughter  of  Benjamin 
Perkins,  of  Fluvanna  County,  and  Martha  Bullock,  of 
Albemarle. 

In  the  report  of  the  State  Mission  Board  to  the  Gen- 
eral Association,  in  1871,  these  words  are  found:  "The 
Goshen  Association  is  now  cooperating  in  the  State 

421 


422         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Mission  work  of  the  General  Association,  and  we  have 
made  appropriations  to  aid  five  brethren  in  preaching  to 
feeble  churches  of  that  body  which,  without  such  help, 
are  in  danger  of  extinction.  .  .  .  Brother  H.  D. 
Ragland  has  four  stations  in  Goochland  and  Louisa.  We 
propose  to  aid  liberally  in  restoring  the  waste  places  of 
Zion  in  the  Goshen  Association,  not  only  for  the  sake 
of  the  hallowed  memories  which  linger  around  the  old 
meeting  places  of  the  early  Baptist  fathers  of  Virginia, 
but  to  hasten  the  bright  future  which  we  feel  assured  lies 
before  the  Lord's  people  there."  In  1873,  when  Mr. 
Ragland  worked  for  half  a  year  in  this  same  connection, 
he  had  five  preaching  points  and  baptized  sixteen  persons. 
During  his  long  service  in  the  Goshen  Association  he  was 
pastor  of  these  churches :  Mt.  Prospect,  Fork,  Perkins, 
and  Lickinghole  (now  known  as  Smyrna).  The 
churches  in  the  Dover  Association  to  which  he  ministered 
were  Dover  and  Goochland.  In  this  territory,  in  these 
two  Associations,  for  fifty  years  he  went  in  and  out 
among  the  people,  God  setting  the  seal  of  his  approval 
on  his  "devoted  and  popular  ministry."  Of  two  of  these 
churches,  Fork  and  Perkins,  he  was  pastor  twice,  his 
first  union  with  the  former  body  extending  over  twenty- 
one  years ;  but  his  longest  pastorate  was  at  the  Dover 
Church,  where  he  remained  a  quarter  of  a  century. 
Something  like  a  decade  before  the  end  of  his  life  he 
went  to  live  in  Botetourt  County,  becoming  pastor  of 
Springwood,  Mt.  Beulah,  Longdale,  and  Forest  Grove 
Churches ;  but  after  a  few  years  he  returned  to  the  section 
where  he  was  to  the  "manner  born."  His  last  work  was 
given  to  Hopeful,  Louisa  County,  and  Mt.  Olivet,  Han- 
over County.  He  became  interested  in  the  establishment 
of  a  church  near  his  home,  and,  even  on  what  proved  to 
be  his  death  bed,  planned  for  the  accomplishment  of  this 
undertaking.  Three  months  before  his  own  death  came 


HUGH  DAVIS  RAGLAND  423 

that  of  his  wife.  This  was  a  severe  blow,  but  his  faith 
did  not  falter,  and  their  graves  are  near  the  meeting- 
house they  labored  to  build. 

Mr.  Ragland  was  a  man  of  genial  bearing  and  with  a 
sweet-toned  voice.  One  of  his  fellow-ministers  said  of 
him :  "He  was  a  plain  and  unassuming  man.  His 
humility  was  beautiful.  He  was  greatly  beloved  by  his 
flock,  because  he  always  showed  a  deep  concern  for 
them."  His  genial  and  cordial  spirit  was  not  out  of 
harmony  with  a  vigorous  mind,  and  this  blend  of 
qualities  doubtless  gave  him  special  fitness  for  the  office 
of  Public  School  Superintendent,  which  he  held  for 
Goochland  County  sixteen  years.  He  owned  and  drove 
for  seventeen  years  a  sorrel  mare  named  "Catherine 
Swinford."  He  died  March  5,  1914,  being  survived  by  a 
son  and  two  daughters,  Mr.  E.  Herbert  Ragland,  Mrs. 
H.  A.  Wiltshire,  and  Mrs.  E.  S.  Lacy. 


EDWARD  LANGSTON  BAPTIST 

1837-1914 

Richard  Harwood  Baptist,  whose  sister,  Frances 
Russell  Baptist,  was  the  mother  of  the  famous  Confeder- 
ate general,  Ambrose  Powell  Hill,  represented  his  county, 
Mecklenburg,  for  twelve  years  in  the  Virginia  State 
Senate.  His  wife,  who  was  Miss  Sallie  Goode,  a 
daughter  of  Samuel  and  Ann  Spottswood  Goode,  of 
Mecklenburg  County,  was  a  great-granddaughter  of 
Alexander  Spottswood,  one  of  the  colonial  governors  of 
Virginia.  Of  these  parents  Edward  Langston  Baptist 
was  born,  March  13,  1837,  at  "Sycamore  Grove,"  on 
Bluestone  Creek,  Mecklenburg  County,  Virginia.  Not 
many  miles  away  from  "Sycamore  Grove"  is  Hampden- 
Sidney  College,  with  its  peaceful  quiet  of  the  country; 
here  young  Baptist  attended  school  for  a  season  and  then, 
for  some  reason,  went  to  William  and  Mary  at  Williams- 
burg,  where  he  graduated  in  the  class  of  1857,  Dr. 
Samuel  G.  Harris  being  one  of  his  fellow-graduates. 
While  at  William  and  Mary,  Mr.  Baptist  was  a  member 
of  the  Epsilon  Chapter  of  the  Theta  Delta  Chi  Fra- 
ternity. The  records  of  the  fraternity  bear  witness  to 
his  noble  qualities  and  to  the  fact  that  he  was  a  true 
friend.  From  Williamsburg  he  went  to  Columbian  Uni- 
versity and  studied  law,  and  then  settled  in  Charles  Town 
(now  in  West  Virginia)  to  practice  his  chosen  profes- 
sion, but  the  questions  of  slavery  and  States'  rights  that 
were  being  discussed  so  generally,  suggested  to  the  young 
lawyer  that  war  might  not  be  far  off  and  that  it  would 
be  better  for  him  to  be  among  his  own  people,  so  he 
turned  his  steps  towards  his  native  county  and  opened 


EDWARD  LANGSTON  BAPTIST          425 

an  office  at  Boydton.  When  the  war  cloud  did  break  he 
went  to  the  front  with  the  Boydton  Cavalry,  3d  Virginia 
Regiment,  commanded  by  Thomas  F.  Goode.  He  was 
a  courier  for  Gen.  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  and  was  with  that 
distinguished  commander  when  he  was  wounded.  Later, 
Mr.  Baptist  was  taken  as  prisoner  to  Point  Lookout, 
where  he  was  held  for  more  than  a  year.  In  the  awful 
"reconstruction  period,"  with  his  property  all  gone,  he 
set  out  to  provide  as  best  he  could  for  his  growing  family. 
He  established  himself  as  a  school-teacher  in  an  old  log 
schoolhouse  four  miles  from  his  home,  often  walking 
this  distance  to  his  daily  work.  One  of  his  pupils  testifies 
that  he  had  the  happy  faculty  of  making  the  student  love 
his  work.  He  was  the  friend  of  boys,  and  they  loved 
and  respected  him.  When,  in  the  early  seventies,  the 
Public  Free  School  System  was  established  in  Virginia, 
Mr.  Baptist  was  appointed  the  first  Superintendent  of 
Public  Instruction  for  Mecklenburg  County.  He  held 
this  position  until  he  was  elected  by  his  fellow-citizens  to 
represent  them  in  the  State  Legislature  for  the  session 
of  1895-6. 

In  1869  at  "The  City,"  or  what  is  now  known  as  Chase 
City,  Mr.  Baptist  was  converted,  the  light  of  the  gospel 
coming  to  him  with  something  of  the  suddenness  and 
deep  conviction  that  marked  the  great  change  in  the  life 
of  the  Apostle  Paul.  He  at  once  began  to  prepare  him- 
self for  the  gospel  ministry  to  which  he  felt  called.  He 
attended  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  and 
in  1874  his  name  appears  for  the  first  time  in  the  list  of 
Virginia  Baptist  ministers  in  the  Minutes  of  the  General 
Association.  Within  the  bounds  of  the  Concord  Asso- 
ciation his  work  as  a  minister  was  done.  At  times  he  was 
both  teacher  and  preacher.  The  churches  to  which  he 
ministered  for  longer  or  shorter  periods  were  Boydton, 
New  Hope,  Olive  Branch,  Mt.  Zion,  Cut  Banks,  Ephesus, 


426         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Tabernacle,  Mt.  Horeb,  and  Concord.  His  was  a 
successful  ministry,  and  many  of  his  spiritual  children 
rise  up  to  call  him  blessed.  He  was  a  man  of  handsome 
appearance,  of  dignified  bearing,  yet  easily  approached; 
a  true  friend,  fond  of  horses  and  of  books,  high-minded, 
and  very  conscientious.  He  loved  to  work  among  the 
troubled  and  distressed,  and  gave  more  thought  to  others 
than  to  himself. 

His  marriage,  in  1860,  to  Miss  Emma  Rolfe,  of  Meck- 
lenburg County,  was  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  very 
happy  married  life  that  was  not  broken  until  the  death  of 
the  wife  on  March  11,  1911.  Five  of  the  children  of 
this  home  are  still  living,  namely :  Edward  Langston 
Baptist,  John  Harwood  Baptist,  William  Glanville  Bap- 
tist, Mrs.  W.  G.  Moss,  and  Mrs.  J.  K.  Lockett. 

Mr.  Baptist  died,  on  March  11,  1914,  in  Lynchburg  in 
the  home  of  his  daughter.  The  body  was  taken  to  Boyd- 
ton  and  laid  away  in  the  snow-clad  earth  of  the  old 
Presbyterian  Church  cemetery,  the  funeral  service  being 
conducted  by  Rev.  R.  E.  Peale. 


JUDSON  CAREY  DAVIDSON 

1846-1914 

Not  far  from  one  of  the  small  streams  which  make  the 
headwaters  of  the  Appomattox  River,  and  some  eight  or 
ten  miles  west  of  old  Appomattox  Court  House,  is  "Oak 
Grove,"  a  comfortable  home  which  has  belonged  to  the 
Davidson  family  since  1701,  at  which  time  the  original 
grant  was  made  to  Alexander  Davidson  by  William  III, 
"King  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland."  The  house,  with 
its  wide  doors,  large  rooms,  and  big  fireplaces,-  is  unlike 
most  of  the  farmhouses  built  to-day.  Some  splendid 
trees  stand  near  the  house,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  hill  is 
a  generous  spring.  In  this  home  Judson  Carey  Davidson, 
whose  very  name  suggests  that  he  came  of  pious  stock, 
was  born,  February  2,  1846,  his  parents  being  Jesse 
Thornhill  Davidson  and  Martha  Osborne  Davidson. 
He  was  converted  early  in  life  and  baptized  by  Rev.  John 
Hamner.  Two  miles  from  "Oak  Grove"  is  Hebron  Bap- 
tist Church,  in  which  there  is  a  memorial  window  to  Jesse 
Thornhill  Davidson,  who  for  thirty-seven  years  was  the 
Superintendent  of  the  Hebron  Sunday  School.  His  son, 
T.  O.  Davidson,  who  now  has  this  office,  has  filled  it  for 
twenty-five  years.  Appomattox  County,  that  was  to 
have  a  world-wide  fame  as  the  place  where  the  Civil  War 
came  to  an  end,  was  not  behind  in  the  matter  of  sending 
out  soldiers  when  the  cruel  struggle  began.  Young  Jud- 
son Carey  Davidson,  having  studied  under  tutors  and  at 
Union  Academy,  was  one  of  the  men,  or  rather  youths, 
for  he  was  only  seventeen  years  old,  who  answered  their 
country's  call  and  went  forth  to  the  tented  field.  The 
remaining  years  of  the  War  he  served  in  Company  A, 

427 


428         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

llth  Virginia  Regiment,  Pickett's  Division.  On  the 
retreat  from  Petersburg  "he  was  wounded  at  the  Battle 
of  Five  Forks,  in  Dinwiddie  County,  April  1,  1865. 
When  he  was  shot  down  a  companion  stopped  long 
enough  to  prop  him  against  an  embankment  at  the  inter- 
section of  two  roads.  As  a  detachment  of  Union  cavalry 
came  up  one  man  shouted :  'Only  a  wounded  Rebel ;  ride 
over  him,  boys.'  But  the  captain  commanded  a  halt  and 
detailed  men  to  move  the  'wounded  Rebel'  out  of  the 
road,  put  him  in  a  more  comfortable  position,  and  fill  his 
canteen  with  water.  The  grateful  soldier  inquired  the 
name  of  his  humane  enemy,  but  his  only  reply  was :  'Just 
a  Yank  trying  to  help  a  wounded  Johnnie.'  For  many 
hours  he  was  left  unattended,  and  was  finally  put  into  a 
rough  army  wagon  and  hauled  over  an  almost  impassable 
road,  sometimes  conscious,  sometimes  fainting  from  loss 
of  blood  or  excessive  pain.  He  at  last  reached  a  field 
hospital,  where,  on  the  fourth  day  after  he  was  wounded, 
he  was  fed  and  his  wound  was  examined.  The  doctors 
decided  to  amputate  his  leg,  but  he  protested  so  vigor- 
ously that  they  concluded  to  let  him  alone.  The  wounded 
men  were  moved  to  a  prison,  and  for  three  months  Mr. 
Davidson  remained  a  prisoner,  suffering  horribly  from 
his  wounded  leg  and  from  want  of  proper  attention. 
About  the  last  of  June  he  and  many  other  sick  and 
wounded  men  were  put  on  a  boat  and  sent  to  Richmond, 
from  which  point  he  made  his  way  home"  in  the  face  of 
incredible  hardships. 

Upon  the  reestablishment  of  his  health  he  went  into 
business  in  Lynchburg.  It  was  not  long,  however,  before 
he  decided  that  it  was  his  duty  to  be  a  preacher.  This 
decision  led  to  his  entering  the  Southern  Baptist  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  then  at  Greenville,  S.  C,  where  he  had 
among  his  classmates  such  men  as  Breaker,  Rogers,  and 
Sproles.  Upon  leaving  Greenville  he  was  ordained, 


JUDSON  CAREY  DAVIDSON  429 

October  30,  1872,  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Lynch- 
burg,  the  following  ministers  composing  the  presbytery : 
Rev.  Dr.  C.  C.  Bitting,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  C.  Kincannon,  and 
Rev.  Dr.  W.  A.  Montgomery.  A  few  months  after  this 
he  became  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  of  Sedalia, 
Mo.  Here  he  built  up  a  large  congregation,  being 
especially  popular  with  the  young  men  of  the  city.  In 
1878  he  was  married  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Diuguid,  the 
daughter  of  George  A.  Diuguid,  of  Lynchburg,  and  the 
next  year  became  pastor  of  the  Fifth  Street  Church, 
Hannibal,  Mo.  From  Hannibal  he  came  to  Winchester, 
Va.,  "where  perhaps  the  greatest  work  of  his  life  was 
done.  The  Baptist  Church  in  Winchester  had  never  been 
strong.  Members  were  few  and  scattered ;  there  was  no 
church  edifice,  and  prospects  for  Baptist  growth  were 
very  dark.  The  Baptist  Church  now  standing  in  Win- 
chester is  Mr.  Davidson's  best  monument,  representing, 
as  it  does,  the  overcoming  of  almost  insuperable  obstacles. 
It  was  dedicated  entirely  free  from  debt  and  supported 
by  a  well-organized  membership."  After  six  years  in 
Winchester  he  became  pastor  of  the  Grace  Church,  Balti- 
more. During  his  pastorate  a  debt  on  the  meeting-house 
was  paid,  a  handsome  stone  parsonage  and  a  reading- 
room  were  built,  and  the  church,  giving  up  help  from  the 
State  Mission  Board,  became  independent  and  self- 
supporting.  During  his  years  in  Baltimore  he  was  for 
two  sessions  President  of  Maryland  Baptist  Union  Asso- 
ciation. After  some  three  years  in  Johnson  City,  Tenn., 
as  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  there,  he  returned  to  the 
church  and  community  of  his  early  years.  Hebron  was 
now  his  charge,  and  for  a  part  of  his  time  at  Hebron  he 
was  also  the  undershepherd  at  Mt.  Vernon  and  Red  Oak. 
This  pastorate,  which  lasted  nine  years,  was  the  close  of 
his  active  ministry.  His  health  began  to  fail,  so  he 
resigned  in  October,  1911,  and,  two  months  later,  moved 


430         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

to  Lynchburg  to  live.  In  this  city,  on  the  night  of  April 
21,  1914,  he  passed  away.  His  wife  and  three  children, 
namely,  Dr.  George  D.  Davidson  and  Misses  Mabel  and 
Grace  Davidson,  survive  him. 

Mr.  Davidson's  sermons  invited  attention  by  striking, 
epigrammatic,  or  alliterative  phrases.  Of  Mr.  Davidson, 
after  his  death,  Rev.  W.  S.  Roy  all,  in  a  tribute  in  the 
Herald,  said :  "Brother  Davidson  was  constructive.  In 
nearly  all  his  pastorates  he  had  church  building  to  do,  debt 
paying  and  organizing  to  accomplish,  such  as  require 
resourcefulness,  patience,  and  perseverance. 
Genial  and  companionable,  I  found  it  very  helpful  and 
joyful  to  be  associated  with  him  in  our  Lord's  work." 

A  poem  written  by  Rev.  T.  D.  D.  Clark  to  the  memory 
of  Mr.  Davidson  begins  with  these  lines : 

"Dear  friend  of  my  youth,  when  I  needed  a  friend, 

The  door  that  swings  outward  now  hides  from  my  sight 
The  face  and  the  form  of  as  gracious  a  soul 
As  ever  was  brought  from  darkness  to  light." 


CALVIN  ROAH  NORRIS 

1870-1914 

Almost  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago  a  man  set  up, 
on  a  roadside  in  Watauga  County,  North  Carolina,  a 
country  store.  It  seemed  so  small  an  affair  that  an  old 
gentleman  said  that  it  would  have  nothing  but  soda  to 
sell.  So  the  place  came  to  be  called  Soda  Hill.  At  this 
place,  August  22,  1870,  Calvin  Roah  Norris  was  born. 
Watauga  County,  under  the  shadow  of  the  Blue  Ridge 
Mountains,  is  in  a  section  of  the  State  that  has  sent  forth 
many  preachers.  Young  Norris  grew  up  on  the  farm, 
living  a  quiet,  peaceful  life,  and  was  educated,  as  his 
parents  before  him  had  been,  in  the  common  schools.  He 
joined  the  church  January  20,  1889,  being  baptized  by 
Rev.  David  Greene.  In  the  midst  of  his  own  people,  at 
Meat_  Camp  Church,  an  old-fashioned  meeting-house 
among  the  mountains,  he  was  ordained  in  1906,  these 
ministers  composing  the  presbytery:  David  Greene, 
L.  A.  Wilson,  and  John  Orisp.  At  this  church  he  labored 
for  some  three  years  with  marked  success.  Stuart's 
Draft,  Augusta  County,  Virginia,  was  his  next  field,  and 
after  a  year  or  more  there  he  became  pastor  at  Pamplin, 
Appomattox  County,  Elon  (Pamplin),  Evergreen,  and 
Matthews  Churches  forming  his  field.  On  the  morning 
of  June  13,  1914,  he  passed  away,  in  the  very  prime  of 
his  manhood.  The  body  was  taken  back  to  his  old  home 
among  the  blue  hills.  The  funeral  was  conducted  by 
Rev.  Willis  F.  Wayts,  of  Farmville,  assisted  by  Rev. 
A.  J.  Ponton,  the  pastor  of  the  Pamplin  Presbyterian 
Church.  Of  Mr.  Norris,  Rev.  Mr.  Ponton  said :  'Truly 
he  did  a  great  work  in  our  midst  in  the  little  while  that  he 

431 


432         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

was  spared  us.  All  classes  will  miss  him.  ...  I 
shall  miss  him,  oh,  so  much.  We  were  like  David  and 
Jonathan.  We  were  true  yokefellows.  We  walked 
together,  we  preached  together,  we  prayed  together,  and 
in  all  of  our  close  and  intimate  associations  there  was 
never  a  jar.  He  was  a  Baptist  loyal  and  true  to  every 
tenet  of  his  faith,  yet  withal  void  of  a  sectarian  spirit." 
He  was,  in  build,  about  the  average  height,  straight,  and 
deep  chested.  His  forehead  was  high  and  broad,  the  face 
clean  shaven,  the  mouth  well  shaped  and  strong.  His 
countenance  was  genial  and  his  appearance  inviting. 

His  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  July  17,  1895,  sur- 
vives him.  Before  her  marriage  she  was  Miss  Cora 
Adamire  Gragg.  From  their  earliest  childhood  they  had 
known  each  other.  Of  this  marriage  six  daughters, 
Blanche,  Mattie,  Annie,  Edna,  Marion,  and  Pearl,  and 
one  son,  William  Broadus,  were  born. 


JOSEPH  WASHINGTON  HART 
1843-1914 

In  1861  a  young  man  nineteen  years  old,  named  Joseph 
Washington  Hart,  went  forth  from  King  and  Queen 
County,  Virginia,  to  join  the  Confederate  Army.  He 
enlisted  in  the  26th  Virginia  Infantry,  "where  he  ren- 
dered faithful  service  and  led  an  irreproachable  moral 
life.  His  comrades  in  the  army  testify  that  he  was  a 
soldier  who  could  be  depended  on  to  do  his  duty."  He 
was  licensed  to  preach  in  1864,  and,  after  having  studied 
at  Richmond  College  the  session  of  1867-68,  and  at  the 
Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary  in  1869,  at  the 
call  of  the  Mattaponi  Church  was  ordained  to  the  gospel 
ministry.  In  the  summer  of  1865,  in  a  protracted  meeting 
held  at  Howerton's  Church,  Essex  County,  Virginia,  the 
pastor  of  the  church,  Rev.  Isaac  Diggs,  was  helped  by  a 
young  man,  a  licentiate.  This  young  man  was  Hart. 
Many  were  converted,  and  to  one  of  this  number,  at  least, 
this  was  the  greatest  meeting  he  had  ever  known.  The 
one  who  looks  back  to  this  series  of  meetings  at  Hower- 
ton's with  such  tender  emotion  is  Rev.  Dr.  W.  T.  Derieux, 
now  a  leading  Baptist  pastor  in  South  Carolina.  Upon 
Mr.  Hart's  death  Dr.  Derieux,  in  an  article  about  him  in 
the  Herald,  said :  'Through  the  critical  years  of  my  youth 
he  never  failed  me,  and  his  gentle  and  Christly  spirit 
helped  to  guide  me  into  the  ministry.  My  first  preaching 
was  done  for  him,  and  on  it  he  set  his  blessings.  .  .  . 
He  was  my  pastor  at  Hebron,  King  William  County, 
where  I  entered  the  ministry.  More  than  any  other  man 
he  led  my  steps.  .  .  .  Humble,  faithful,  honest, 
courageous,  upright  soul  was  his." 

His  work  as  a  minister  was  given  to  churches  in  the 
Dover,  Rappahannock,  and  Portsmouth  Associations. 

433 


434         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

From  about  1871  to  1913  he  labored  faithfully.  At  two 
churches  he  continued  as  pastor  for  more  than  a  decade. 
In  the  Dover  Association  he  had  charge  of  the  Hebron 
and  Mt.  Horeb  Churches.  He  was  next  in  the  Rappa- 
hannock  Association,  where  his  churches  were  Hower- 
ton's,  Providence  (Caroline),  and  Mt.  Hermon.  From 
1885  to  1904  he  labored  in  the  Portsmouth  Association, 
ministering  to  these  churches:  Newville,  Waverly,  Old 
Shop  (which,  since  1896,  has  been  known  as  Oakland), 
Elam,  and  Readsville.  From  this  section  he  moved  back 
to  the  Rappahannock  Association,  where  his  last  field 
was  composed  of  the  Lower  King  and  Queen  and  Mat- 
taponi  Churches.  He  died  on  August  11,  1914,  and  was 
buried  in  the  Mattaponi  churchyard. 

He  was  married  three  times.  His  first  wife  was  Miss 
Columbia  Derieux,  of  Essex  County,  Virginia,  daughter 
of  A.  G.  and  Virginia  F.  Derieux.  The  children  of  this 
marriage  are  Mrs.  Emma  Roger,  Seattle,  Wash. ;  Dr. 
Arthur  Hart,  of  Mecklenburg  County,  Virginia ;  and 
Rev.  Joseph  L.  Hart,  missionary  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
Convention  to  Argentina.  His  second  wife  was  Miss  S. 
Terrell.  His  last  wife,  who,  with  one  daughter,  Miss 
Mary  Lelia,  survives  him,  was,  before  her  marriage,  Miss 
Mary  L.  Wright. 

The  Religious  Herald,  in  noticing  Mr.  Hart's  death, 
called  him  "one  of  the  most  modest  and  excellent  of  our 
country  pastors,"  and  said :  "He  has  been  pastor  of 
various  Virginia  fields,  and  the  sweet  savour  of  a  godly 
and  earnest  life  abides  in  every  community  in  which  he 
has  lived  and  labored."  Rev.  Dr.  G.  W.  Beale,  in  his 
obituary  of  Mr.  Hart,  said :  "Brother  Hart,  in  the  pro- 
found experiences  of  his  soul,  felt  that  the  gospel  had 
been  the  power  of  God  unto  his  own  salvation,  and  it 
was  his  delight  to  recommend  it  with  all  his  ability  to 
the  hearts  and  consciences  of  others,  and  his  sympathies 
for  the  lost  were  as  wide  as  the  world." 


CHARLES  WELDON  COLLIER 
1861-1914 

On  May  19,  1861,  just  a  few  weeks  after  Virginia 
had  seceded,  in  Petersburg,  where  so  many  tragic  scenes 
of  the  War  took  place  later,  Charles  Weldon  Collier  was 
born,  his  parents  being  James  L.  and  Sue  Dicson  Collier. 
While  working  as  a  printer  in  Petersburg  he  and  his 
wife,  who  before  her  marriage,  which  took  place  Novem- 
ber 24,  1882,  was  Miss  Ella  V.  Browne,  the  daughter 
of  George  I.  and  Mary  Goodwin  Browne,  were  baptized 
into  the  fellowship  of  the  West  End  Baptist  Church  by 
Rev.  M.  L.  Wood.  He  at  once  became  active  in  church 
effort,  and  before  long  took  up  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work.  From 
this  service  he  passed  into  the  gospel  ministry,  being 
ordained  at  his  mother  church  December  29,  1892.  He 
went  to  Crozer  Theological  Seminary,  where  he  gradu- 
ated in  1894.  At  his  ordination,  which  took  place  at  the 
West  End  Church,  Petersburg,  December  29,  1892,  the 
presbytery  was  composed  of  these  ministers :  J.  C. 
Hiden,  J.  M.  Pilcher,  and  H.  W.  Battle.  After  his  first 
pastorate,  which  was  at  Wilmington,  Del.,  he  came  back 
to  his  native  State  and  accepted  the  care  of  churches  in 
the  Shiloh  Association.  During  all  the  years  of  his 
service  in  the  Shiloh  Association  he  was  pastor  of  Mt. 
Carmel  and  Woodville,  and,  for  a  large  part  of  this 
period,  of  Mt.  Lebanon.  For  a  portion  of  the  decade 
he  spent  in  the  Shiloh  he  was  in  charge  of  one  or  more 
of  these  churches :  Slate  Mills,  New  Salem,  Shiloh,  Beth 
Car,  F.  T.,  and  Flint  Hill.  In  1905  he  moved  to  the 
Strawberry  Association,  becoming  pastor  of  the  Bedford 
City  Church.  During  the  larger  part  of  this  pastorate 

435 


436         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

he  ministered  also  to  the  Timber  Ridge  Church.  While 
he  was  at  Bedford  City  he  led  his  people  to  the  erection 
of  a  modern  Sunday-school  room  and  to  securing  a 
parsonage.  After  some  eight  years  here  his  health  began 
to  give  away,  and  he  was  called  on  to  pass  through 
months  of  languishing  and  suffering.  His  earthly  life 
closed  August  12,  1914,  at  Culpeper,  Va.  Mr.  Collier 
was  tall,  of  fair  complexion,  dark  hair  and  moustache, 
and  brown  eyes.  He  had  a  bright,  happy  disposition, 
loved  his  home,  books,  his  many  pets,  and  horses.  He 
was  fond  of  flowers  and  music,  and  played  the  organ. 


FREDERICK  WILLIAM  CLAYBROOK 

1844-1914 

In  the  Northern  Neck  of  Virginia,  at  Heathsville, 
Northumberland  County,  FYederick  William  Claybrook 
was  born  August  3,  1844,  his  parents  being  Richard  A. 
Claybrook  and  Charlotte  T.  Brown.  For  the  first  twenty 
years  of  his  life  his  father's  house,  near  Lotsburg,  in  his 
native  county,  was  his  home.  When  this  residence  was 
burned  by  the  Union  Army  in  1864,  the  family  moved 
to  Westmoreland  County.  Private  tutors  cared  for  the 
training  of  the  boy  until  he  was  old  enough  to  enter  the 
Northumberland  Academy.  From  this  institution  he 
passed  to  the  school  of  Mr.  Hillary  Jones,  in  Hanover 
County,  and  from  there  to  the  Virginia  Military  Insti- 
tute, Lexington,  where  he  graduated  in  1864.  The  story 
of  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  cadets  who  went  to  the 
War  and  to  the  battle  of  New  Market,  May  15,  1864,  is 
famous  in  the  annals  of  Virginia  and  the  South.  Young 
Claybrook  was  one  of  this  noble  band,  whose  names  are 
enrolled  on  the  stone  monument — "Virginia  Mourning 
Her  Dead" — in  front  of  the  Institute.  He  was  Second 
Lieutenant,  D  Company.  He  continued  with  the  Con- 
federate Army  around  Richmond  until  early  in  1865, 
when  he  joined  Mosby's  Battalion,  with  which  command 
he  remained  till  the  end  of  the  War.  After  the  War, 
living  at  his  home,  "Afton,"  near  The  Hague,  Westmore- 
land County,  he  studied  and  practiced  law  for  a  few 
years.  In  1871  he  made  a  profession  of  religion,  and 
later,  it  seems  in  1873,  was  baptized  into  the  fellowship 
of  the  Machodoc  Baptist  Church,  Westmoreland  County. 
The  same  year  he  entered  the  Southern  Baptist  Theo- 

437 


438         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

logical  Seminary,  Greenville,  S.  C.,  and  was  there  until 
the  death  of  his  father  made  it  necessary  for  him  to 
return  home  so  as  to  be  able  to  care  for  his  mother  and 
sister.  He  was  ordained  to  the  gospel  ministry  at  his 
mother  church,  Machodoc,  on  June  20,  1875,  his  ordina- 
tion having  been  asked  for  by  the  Pope's  Creek  Church, 
of  which  flock  he  took  charge  that  same  year.  In  his 
ministry  of  some  forty  years  he  was  to  do  good  service 
in  the  organization  of  churches  and  the  building  of 
meeting-houses,  and  he  here  exercised  his  hand  first  at 
this  kind  of  work,  organizing  the  Oak  Grove  Church,  and 
then  first  built  and  later  improved  their  house  of  worship. 
At  Oak  Grove  and  Pope's  Creek  he  was  "very  popular 
and  successful."  Farnham,  Richmond  County,  and 
Lebanon,  Lancaster  County,  formed  his  next  field;  here 
he  remained  several  years,  having  "a  successful  and 
popular  ministry  and  endearing  himself  greatly  to  the 
churches."  In  1885,  accepting  a  call  of  the  Morattico 
Church,  Lancaster  County,  he  began  what  was  his  long- 
est and  most  fruitful  pastorate.  Upon  his  going  to  this 
field,  Irvington  and  White  Stone  were  missions  of  the 
Morattico  Church ;  but,  largely  because  of  his  energy  and 
zeal,  they  soon  became  separate  organizations.  He  estab- 
lished preaching  stations  near  Wicomoco  and  Weems 
Churches,  and  for  several  years  maintained  such  work  at 
Bluff  Point.  All  this  meant  that  two  Sundays  every 
month  he  rode  thirty-six  miles,  preaching  three  times.  In 
order  to  make  this  circuit,  when  the  days  were  short,  he 
was  obliged  to  eat  a  lunch  on  the  road  and  to  feed  his 
horse  while  he  was  preaching.  At  three  points  on  this 
field  he  saw  erected  houses  of  worship,  and  in  a  large 
measure  these  churches :  Oak  Grove,  Irvington,  Clay- 
brook  (named  after  him),  and  Wicomoco,  which  "owe 
their  existence  to  his  fine  judgment,  consecrated  energy, 
and  the  unwearying  purpose  of  his  soul  to  make  his  life 


FREDERICK  WILLIAM  CLAYBROOK     439 

count  for  his  Master's  service  and  glory."  The  new 
meeting-house  at  Kilmarnock  "is  also  a  monument  to  his 
pious  zeal  and  practical  sagacity."  He  was  always  on 
time  at  his  appointments,  his  work  always  gave  him  joy, 
and  he  never  worried.  It  was  while  he  was  at  Morattico 
that  he  organized  the  Wharton  Grove  Camp-Meeting,  a 
gathering  over  which  he  presided  as  long  as  his  strength 
would  allow. 

In  the  general  work  of  the  denomination,  both  in  his 
Association,  the  Rappahannock,  and  in  the  State,  he  was 
deeply  interested.  He  was  a  member  of  the  State  Mis- 
sion Board  and  the  Orphanage  Board,  and  was  regular 
in  his  attendance  at  the  Sunday  School  Convention,  the 
Ministers'  Institute,  and  the  Association,  and  in  these 
gatherings  was  a  "prudent  counselor  and  a  clear  and 
forceful  speaker."  Dr.  Beale,  from  whose  obituary 
quotations  have  already  been  made,  says :  "As  a  preacher 
he  was  practical,  direct,  and  hortatory  in  his  style,  not 
ornate  or  given  to  imaginative  flights,  but  deeply  in 
earnest,  and  his  messages  were  from  his  heart  appealing 
to  other  hearts.  His  ability  was  recognized  in  his  call  to 
preach  an  annual  sermon  before  the  General  Association, 
as  also  at  a  Commencement  of  the  Virginia  Military 
Institute."  Dr.  Beale  also  says:  "In  his  relation  to  his 
brother  ministers  he  was  genial,  cordial,  and  affectionate 
in  his  manner,  and  a  vein  of  delightful  humor  pervaded 
and  enriched  his  conversation.  Against  certain  popular 
and  indiscreet  amusements  he  inveighed  in  private  and  in 
the  pulpit,  and  whatever  indulgences  seemed  to  him 
fraught  with  immoral  tendencies  found  in  him  an  alert 
and  steadfast  foe.  In  his  home  life,  love  ruled  supreme, 
and  found  expression  in  the  embrace  and  kiss  of  affection 
in  the  family  circle,  which  in  far  too  many  homes  is 
omitted."  His  habits  were  regular,  he  was  an  early 
riser,  and  very  industrious.  He  was  fond  of  reading  and 


440         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

study,  and,  though  he  did  not  care  for  hunting,  loved  a 
good  horse.  He  gave  close  and  strict  attention  to  busi- 
ness and  other  work  that  his  hands  found  to  do.  He 
loved  children,  and  was  manly  and  godly.  One  who 
knew  him  well  for  many  years  says:  "I  could  write  a 
book  on  his  beautiful  life."  He  was  of  medium  size, 
about  five  feet  eight  inches  in  height,  erect  in  his  carriage, 
"of  pleasing  address,  and  good  looking,"  his  eyes  and 
hair  being  dark. 

He  was  married  twice ;  first  in  January,  1 884,  to  Miss 
Mary  Franklin  Dew,  of  King  and  Queen  County,  and  in 
1895  to  Miss  Nannie  Garnett,  of  the  same  county.  Five 
children  by  the  first  marriage  survive  him,  namely: 
Frederick  William,  Franklin  Dew,  Mary  Susan,  Char- 
lotte Edmonds,  and  Elizabeth  Simmons,  and  of  the 
second  marriage  two  children:  Reuben  Garnett  and 
Lilia  F.,  and  his  widow. 

For  several  years  before  his  death  his  health  was 
declining,  and  finally  a  lingering  illness  kept  him  in  bed 
for  months.  During  his  illness  he  asked  Dr.  M.  B. 
Wharton,  who  was  visiting  him :  "Wharton,  where  is 
heaven?"  He  passed  away  at  his  home  at  Kilmarnock, 
Lancaster  County,  August  14,  1914.  The  funeral,  which 
was  held  on  the  16th  at  Kilmarnock  Church,  was  con- 
ducted by  Rev.  Wayland  F.  Dunaway,  assisted  by  Rev. 
H.  J.  Goodwin,  and  was  attended  by  a  great  concourse 
of  people.  The  interment  took  place  in  the  Morattico 
Church  cemetery. 


SAMUEL  P.  MASSIE 
1835-1914 

Amherst  County,  which  lies  in  Piedmont  Virginia, 
was  the  birthplace  and,  with  adjoining  counties,  the 
scene  of  the  life  work  of  Samuel  P.  Massie.  The  year 
1835,  which  saw  Texas  declare  its  independence,  was  the 
year  of  his  birth.  When  the  War  broke  out,  in  1861,  he 
enlisted  in  Company  I,  19th  Virginia  Regiment  of 
Infantry,  Pickett's  Division,  and  served  to  the  end  of 
this  struggle.  At  the  close  of  the  War  he  entered  Rich- 
mond College,  where  he  was  a  student  from  1866  to  1869, 
to  prepare  for  the  gospel  ministry.  During  these  years, 
when  opportunity  was  given  him  to  speak  at  Sidney  Bap- 
tist Church  (Richmond),  he  displayed  such  remarkable 
evangelistic  gifts  that  he  was  invited  to  conduct  a  pro- 
tracted meeting;  this  meeting  resulted  in  a  revival.  He 
was  called  to  the  pastorate  of  the  church,  and  served 
until  the  end  of  the  session,  being  succeeded  in  this 
office  by  Rev.  J.  M.  Pilcher.  The  summer  which 
followed  was  filled  with  evangelistic  work,  and,  not 
returning  to  college,  he  settled  among  his  own  people. 
For  almost  thirty  years  he  was  pastor  and  preacher  in 
the  Albemarle  Association,  in  which  period  he  served 
these  churches :  Mt.  Moriah,  Sharon,  Mt.  Paran,  Walnut 
Grove,  Jonesboro,  Piney  River,  Mt.  Shiloh,  Rose  Union, 
Midway,  New  Prospect,  Central,  Adiel,  Oak  Hill.  After 
his  active  work  was  over  he  continued  to  live  at  Lowes- 
ville,  and  here  he  was  buried.  On  October  2,  1914,  he 
passed  away,  leaving  three  children:  C.  G.  Massie,  a 
civil  engineer,  P.  R.  Massie,  a  lawyer,  and  Mrs.  Ella  M. 
Harvey.  His  wife,  who  died  some  five  years  before  he 
did,  was,  before  her  marriage,  Miss  Lucy  Cox. 

441 


JOHN  WALKER  HUNDLEY 
1841-1914 

On  April  14,  1841,  John  Walker  Hundley  was  born 
in  King  and  Queen  County,  Virginia,  his  parents  being 
William  Clarke  Hundley  and  Marion  Street  Hundley. 
His  mother  died  when  he  was  two  years  old,  and  he  was 
reared  by  his  grandparents.  They,  being  people  of  some 
means,  sent  him  to  the  best  available  schools  "and 
indulged  him  to  the  extent  of  badly  spoiling  him."  In 
1858  he  became  a  student  at  Richmond  College,  and  was 
there  until  the  War  broke  out  in  1861. 

"At  outbreak  of  the  War  he  was  associated  as  teacher 
with  J.  Adolphus  Montague  in  an  Academy  for  Boys  at 
Centerville.  I  will  tell  you  of  an  incident  which  occurred 
while  he  was  teaching  there  which  in  after  years  amused 
him  greatly. 

"In  common  with  many  young  men  at  that  time,  he 
was  thirsting  for  an  opportunity  to  display  great  valor 
on  the  battlefield,  and  the  great  chance  seemed  at  hand 
when  the  news  reached  Centerville  from  Richmond  that 
the  great  Union  man-of-war,  Pawnee,  was  on  its  way  up 
the  York  River,  spreading  death  and  destruction  as  it 
came. 

"A  council  of  war  was  called,  and  upon  deciding  that 
something  must  be  done  immediately,  my  father  was 
posted  off  at  12  o'clock  at  night,  with  instructions  to 
ride  under  whip  and  spur  to  King  and  Queen  Court 
House,  seventeen  miles  distant,  to  sound  the  alarm  of 
imminent  peril  and  desolating  war.  And  he  relates  that 
no  gallant  knight  ever  rode  forth  to  meet  inevitable  death 
with  more  alacrity  and  eagerness  than  he.  He  arrived 

442 


JOHN  WALKER  HUNDLEY  443 

at  the  courthouse  at  2  o'clock,  and  the  scene  after  the 
alarm  was  given  beggared  description. 

"All  possible  preparations  were  made  for  war,  and  a 
day  was  spent  with  the  tension  on  heart  and  nerve 
drawn  tight.  Then  brains  cooled,  and  reason  again  held 
sway;  the  panic-stricken  crowd  realized  the  supreme 
ridiculousness  of  the  United  States  Government  sending 
a  great  man-of-war  upon  the  obscure  little  village,  Cen- 
terville,  a  place  not  known  outside  the  county  and  not 
upon  the  county  map." 

The  death  of  his  only  sister,  to  whom  he  was  greatly 
attached,  was  one  of  the  saddest  afflictions  of  his  life, 
and  it  came  when  he  was  at  home,  sick,  on  a  furlough. 
He  was  Second  Lieutenant  of  Company  C,  of  the  26th 
Virginia  Regiment  of  Infantry,  Wise's  Brigade,  N.  B. 
Street  being  Captain.  He  was  publicly  applauded  for 
gallantry  in  the  battle  of  Nottoway  Bridge.  This 
company  was  mustered  into  service  at  Gloucester  Point, 
it  seems,  on  June  12,  1861.  In  1876  he  graduated  at 
the  Crozer  Theological  Seminary,  and  having  been 
licensed  to  preach  in  May,  1874,  he  was  ordained  to  the 
full  work  of  the  gospel  ministry  in  November,  1876,  at 
Mechanicsville  Church,  Virginia.  He  began  his  pastoral 
work  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Virginia,  his  churches 
being  Modesttown  and  Chincoteague.  While  on  this 
field,  as  a  missionary  of  the  State  Mission  Board,  he 
organized,  on  July  1,  1877,  with  12  members,  the 
Atlantic  Baptist  Church.  That  year  he  baptized  22  into 
the  fellowship  of  this  new  church,  and,  within  a  year  or 
so,  57  others.  During  his  ministry  in  the  Accomac  Asso- 
ciation he  was  pastor,  for  longer  or  shorter  seasons, 
besides  the  churches  already  named,  of  these  churches: 
Bethel,  Lee  Mont,  Zion,  Drummondtown,  Pungoteague, 
Onancock,  Broadway.  In  1890  he  moved  to  Tarboro, 
N.  C.,  and,  during  a  brief  pastorate  of  the  Baptist  Church 


444         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

in  that  town,  built  a  meeting-house.  He  came  back  to 
Virginia  and  worked  for  several  years,  in  the  Shenandoah 
Association,  as  pastor  at  Martinsburg,  W.  Va.  His  next 
service  was  first  at  Glade  Spring  and  then  at  Marion. 
From  1897  to  1904  he  had  charge  of  the  Baptist  Church 
at  Covington,  Va.  He  was  for  several  years  the  moder- 
ator of  the  Augusta  Association,  to  which  body  the 
Covington  Church  belongs,  and  for  a  part  of  his  life  at 
Covington  he  was  pastor  of  the  Healing  Springs  Church. 
In  the  opinion  of  Rev.  F.  P.  Berkley,  who  is  now  pastor 
in  Covington,  Mr.  Hundley  "accomplished  at  Covington 
the  greatest  results  of  his  long  and  earnest  ministry."  In 
1900  the  church,  under  his  leadership,  commenced  the 
erection  of  a  beautiful  and  commodious  house  of  wor- 
ship, which  was  dedicated  on  April  6,  1902.  Rev.  Mr. 
Berkley  says:  "I  am  sure  that  no  pastor  has  ever  lived 
in  Covington  who  touched  the  hearts  of  the  people  and 
gained  and  retained  their  affections  and  respect  to  the 
extent  of  our  beloved  brother."  From  Covington  he 
went  once  more  to  the  Eastern  Shore,  becoming  now  the 
pastor  of  the  Cape  Charles  Church.  His  last  pastorate 
was  at  Pocomoke  City,  Md.  After  leaving  this  place, 
and  giving  up  the  active  service  of  the  pastorate  because 
of  feeble  health,  he  came  back  to  Covington,  where  he 
was  among  loved  ones  and  friends.  Here  he  passed 
away  at  the  home  of  his  daughter,  Mrs.  W.  A.  Rinehart, 
October  21,  1914. 

His  wife,  to  whom  he  was  married  March  23,  1865, 
was  Miss  Virginia  M.  Quarles,  of  Louisa  County.  She 
preceded  him  to  the  grave,  passing  away  February  29, 
1912.  Of  this  union  there  were  born  seven  children, 
namely :  Marion  Lee,  Henry  Rhodes,  Augusta,  Susy 
Quarles,  Virginia,  Lois,  and  John  Walker  Hundley,  Jr. 
Marion  Lee  died  November  15,  1890;  Lois,  who  was 
then  Mrs.  E.  S.  Porter,  passed  away  October  15,  1903; 


JOHN  WALKER  HUNDLEY  445 

and  John  Walker,  Jr.,  departed  this  life  November  19, 
1913.  Susan  Quarles  is  now  the  wife  of  Mr.  R.  A. 
McCoy,  Virginia  the  wife  of  Mr.  Claude  Rhame,  and 
Augusta  the  wife  of  Mr.  W.  A.  Rinehart. 

Rev.  Mr.  Berkley  says:  "Brother  Hundley  was  a  very 
strong  preacher,  clear  in  the  expression  of  his  thoughts, 
Scriptural  in  his  conception  of  truth,  exceedingly  tender 
in  his  disposition ;  as  gentle  and  pure  in  speech  as  a 
woman ;  very  modest  of  his  own  powers,  and  kind  and 
affectionate  in  his  dealings  with  others;  a  man  whom 
it  was  no  task  to  love ;  a  friend  whom  one  could  not  help 
trusting  fully.  He  was  a  little  over  the  average  height, 
possibly  six  feet,  or  six  feet  two  inches,  when  he  was 
in  good  health.  He  weighed,  I  suppose,  nearly  two 
hundred  when  he  was  well  and  in  active  life.  He  was 
remarkably  handsome,  both  in  figure  and  face.  He  had 
one  of  the  finest  shaped  noses  I  ever  saw,  very  clearly 
cut,  and  his  eyes  were  striking  in  their  tenderness  when 
that  quality  was  necessary,  and  yet  they  could  almost 
blaze  if  occasion  arose  for  any  expression  of  disapproval. 
Brother  Hundley's  appearance  in  the  pulpit  was  easy  and 
commanding.  He  possessed  a  charming  voice  and  a  very 
attractive  style.  His  feet  and  hands  were  shapely,  and 
he  never  appeared,  so  far  as  I  could  judge,  in  the  slight- 
est degree  slovenly  or  unkept ;  not  even  in  his  last  sick- 
ness did  his  keen  sense  of  cleanliness  in  person  and  in 
speech  desert  him.  He  was  as  modest  as  a  woman."  In 
his  home,  while  not  demonstrative  and  not  without  a 
degree  of  timidity,  he  was  companionable,  and  hospitable 
even  to  the  extent  of  going  out  and  compelling  guests  to 
come  in.  He  enjoyed  outdoor  life  and  sports,  and  was  a 
skilled  gardener,  and  even  after  he  was  in  a  measure 
broken  by  disease,  loved  to  see  a  good  game  of  baseball. 
He  was  in  the  habit  of  having  family  worship  just  before, 
and  of  reading  his  Bible  in  his  room  just  after,  breakfast. 


SUPPLEMENT 

Some  of  the  sketches  in  the  Supplement  are  not  in  the  body  of 
the  book  because  the  material  necessary  for  their  writing  was  re- 
ceived after  the  larger  part  of  this  volume  was  in  type. 


HENRY  DUNDAS  DOUGLAS  STRATON 
1836-1897 

In  the  little  village  of  Bannockburn,  Stirlingshire, 
Scotland,  on  August  14,  1836,  Henry  Dundas  Douglas 
Straton  first  saw  the  light.  Since  the  piety  and  devotion 
to  books  of  even  the  peasant  homes  of  Scotland  are 
proverbial,  it  is  not  surprising  that  although  his  parents 
were  in  humble  circumstances,  they  gave  their  son  a  good 
common  schooling  and  reared  him  in  the  nurture  and 
admonition  of  the  Lord.  And  must  not  the  exploits  of 
William  Wallace  and  Robert  Bruce,  associated  with 
Stirlingshire,  have  stirred  the  soul  of  the  boy?  Was  it 
not  at  Bannockburn,  his  birthplace,  that  on  June  24, 
1314,  the  Scots,  thirty  thousand  strong,  under  Bruce, 
defeated  the  English  army,  one  hundred  thousand  strong, 
under  Edward  II  ?  When,  as  a  youth,  sixteen  years  old, 
he  went  to  Falkirk  and  became  a  clerk  in  a  dry-goods 
store,  he  must  have  been  interested  in  the  old  Roman  wall 
that  runs  through  that  town.  At  one  end  of  the  county 
is  Loch  Katrine,  and  further  south  Loch  Lomond,  while 
the  scenery  of  the  rest  of  the  shire  takes  its  charm  from 
the  views  of  the  valley  of  the  Forth,  with  its  winding 
river  and  the  peaks  of  the  Grampians  in  the  distance. 
During  the  four  years  spent  in  the  store  in  Falkirk  the 
young  man  was  led,  by  the  pious  example  of  a  com- 
panion, to  accept  Christ,  and  from  this  time  forward  he 

446 


HENRY  DUNDAS  DOUGLAS  STRATON    447 

found  pleasure  in  distributing  tracts  and  in  explaining 
and  enforcing  the  Scriptures  among  the  poor  and  igno- 
rant, in  private  homes,  in  the  Sunday  school,  and  else- 
where. After  leaving  Falkirk  he  taught  school  for  a 
year  in  Stirling,  and  then,  when  he  was  twenty-one, 
applied  for  the  appointment  as  city  missionary  for  one 
of  the  largest  Presbyterian  churches  in  Glasgow.  The 
test  to  which  he  was  subjected,  he  passed  successfully, 
and  for  three  years  he  worked  among  the  destitute  classes 
of  this  city,  attending,  at  the  same  time,  classes  in 
Hebrew,  Latin,  Moral  Philosophy,  Greek,  and  Logic,  in 
the  University  of  Glasgow.  The  year  that  he  commenced 
this  work  was  the  very  year  that  John  G.  Paton  gave 
up  exactly  this  kind  of  work  in  Glasgow  to  go  as  a 
missionary  to  the  New  Hebrides;  whether  they  served 
the  same  church  is  not  known.  After  satisfactory 
examinations  at  Glasgow  he  entered  the  United  Presby- 
terian Theological  Hall  at  Edinburgh,  where  he  con- 
tinued his  theological  studies  for  three  terms.  His 
parents  had  emigrated  to  Australia,  and  he  planned  to 
follow  them,  but  in  some  way  his  steps  were  turned 
towards  America,  and  in  January,  1865,  he  landed  at 
Philadelphia.  His  purpose  had  been  to  run  the  blockade 
to  Selma,  Ala.,  but  this  plan  having  failed,  at  the  end  of 
the  Civil  War  he  came  to  Virginia,  and  for  some  time 
canvassed  various  counties  as  a  book  agent.  In  Cumber- 
land County  he  met  Rev.  Jesse  Clopton  Perkins,  the 
pastor  of  Forks  of  Willis  Church,  and  while  a  meeting 
was  going  on  in  this  church,  he  was  led,  through  inter- 
course with  Mr.  Perkins,  to  a  complete  change  of  his 
views  as  to  baptism.  He  was  baptized  in  James  River  by 
Mr.  Perkins,  and  later  a  presbytery  consisting  of  Elders 
Cornelius  Tyree,  Jesse  Clopton  Perkins,  W.  Hall,  and 
W.  A.  Whitescarver,  ordained  him  to  the  Baptist  min- 
istry. On  December  12,  1866,  he  was  married  to  Miss 


448         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Julia  R.  Carter,  of  Richmond,  and  soon  after  this  he 
became  pastor,  in  the  Dover  Association,  of  the  Hebron 
Church,  King  William  County.  After  some  two  years  at 
this  church  he  became  a  missionary  of  the  State  Mission 
Board,  and,  while  working  for  the  Board,  organized  the 
Baptist  Church  of  the  town  of  Salem.  This  event  took 
place  on  May  29,  1870.  After  a  sermon  by  Rev.  Gabriel 
Gray,  eighteen  persons,  seven  male  and  eleven  female, 
went  into  the  organization  of  the  church,  adopting  their 
covenant,  rules  of  order  and  decorum,  and  electing  their 
officers.  H.  D.  D.  Straton  was  elected  pastor,  Jno.  M. 
Harlowe,  clerk,  and  Jno.  M.  Evans,  treasurer.  On 
November  12,  1870,  Mr.  Straton  resigned  the  care  of  the 
Salem  Church.  Seven  years  were  now  spent  in  Ken- 
tucky, his  field  being  Taylorsville,  Buck  Creek,  and 
Henderson,  in  Kentucky,  and  Evansville,  in  Indiana.  In 
1878  he  accepted  a  call  to  Greensboro,  Ga.,  one  Sunday 
each  month  being  given  to  Bairdstown.  From  this  field 
he  went  to  the  pastorate  of  the  First  Church,  Monroe, 
Ga.  And  from  Monroe  he  moved  to  Atlanta,  being 
pastor  in  that  city  first  of  the  Jones  Avenue  Church  and 
then  of  the  Central  Avenue  Church.  He  died  at  Monti- 
cello,  January  31,  1897.  Rev.  John  Roach  Straton, 
D.  D.,  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist  Church,  Norfolk,  Va., 
is  his  son. 


RICHARD  HENRY  EDMONDS 

1831-1858 

Two  old  daguerreotypes  and  a  diary  kept  for  some 
three  years  are  as  windows  to  the  character  and  brief 
career  of  Richard  Henry  Edmonds.  One  of  these 
pictures  was  taken  when  he  was  about  eighteen  and  the 
other  when  he  was  twenty-three  years  old.  They  show  a 
mass  of  soft  hair,  a  forehead  of  unusual  height  and 
width,  and  full,  lustrous  eyes.  The  mouth  is  large  and 
well  shaped,  and  about  the  whole  face  there  is  an  expres- 
sion of  blended  gentleness  and  intelligence.  Sweetness 
and  guilelessness  are  in  every  lineament.  The  diary, 
begun  when  he  was  nineteen,  reminds  one  of  David 
Brainerd  and  other  men  famous  for  their  piety,  for  it 
abounds  in  humble  contrition  for  sin  and  cries  for  cleans- 
ing. Indeed,  so  strong  are  the  words  of  self -depreciation 
and  accusation  that  by  themselves  they  would  describe  a 
desperately  wicked  man.  The  face  that  looks  out  from 
the  old  pictures  contradicts  such  an  opinion.  So  we  are 
led  to  believe  in  his  piety.  In  this  diary  he  declares  that 
his  "standard  of  piety  is  too  low,"  and  that  he  feels,  "to 
a  lamentable  extent,  that  all  is  not  right  within,"  and 
that  one  night  he  was  "beset  and  well-nigh  overthrown 
by  a  well-timed  temptation  from  the  adversary"  of  his 
soul.  He  "experiences  great  spiritual  darkness,"  and 
records  his  wicked  transactions  of  the  day  "with  shame, 
with  sorrow,  and  with  bitter  reflections."  He  is 
"pestered"  as  to  the  question  of  young  ladies'  society, 
whether  it  is  not  hurtful  to  the  spiritual  life.  Yet  at  this 
time  he  was  attending  church  regularly,  usually  three 
times  on  Sunday,  was  often  the  leader  of  the  sunrise 
prayer-meeting,  was  a  teacher  in  the  Sunday  school,  and 

449 


2f» 


450         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

one  of  a  group  of  young  men  who  organized  a  Young 
Men's  Missionary  Society.  He  was  in  the  habit  of 
visiting  the  sick  and  of  talking  with  the  unconverted 
about  their  souls'  welfare.  All  this  time  he  was  engaged 
in  a  business  that  gave  him  his  living,  but  where  he  was 
surrounded  by  men  who  were  very  profane.  Before  the 
diary  closes  the  question  of  his  giving  up  his  business  to 
prepare  for  the  ministry  was  a  burning  issue.  On  Octo- 
ber 13,  1850,  he  was  licensed  by  his  church  to  preach,  and 
in  Norfolk  and  elsewhere,  although  he  had  had  no  college 
or  theological  training,  he  often  proclaimed  the  glad  tid- 
ings of  salvation. 

As  a  boy,  in  his  native  county  of  Lancaster,  he  made 
a  profession  of  religion,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen  was 
baptized  by  Rev.  Addison  Hall.  Afterwards  he  was  not 
sure  whether  this  experience  was  genuine,  but  later,  in 
Norfolk,  he  made  a  surrender  to  Christ,  the  genuineness 
of  which  he  never  questioned.  During  his  life  in  Nor- 
folk, while  an  apprentice  to  a  Mr.  Hall,  he  came  into 
intimate  touch  with  the  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  R.  Hendrick- 
son,  who  had  been  called  to  the  First  Baptist  Church,  his 
church,  in  1846.  He  also  heard  such  men  as  Rev. 
Reuben  Jones,  Dr.  Tiberius  Gracchus  Jones,  and  Dr.  Kirk 
preach,  and  usually  he  set  down  the  texts  of  the  sermons. 
While  he  was  at  work  at  his  daily  business  he  also 
gave  himself  to  study.  His  older  brother,  now  a  capable 
lawyer  in  Texas,  says  that  in  those  days,  when  they 
studied  together,  the  younger  lad  got  in  one  night  what 
it  took  the  older  a  week  to  acquire.  The  father  died 
when  young  Edmonds  was  just  a  lad,  and  he  came  to 
Norfolk  and  went  to  work.  During  these  years  the 
city,  visited  and  desolated  by  the  cholera,  one  fourth  day 
of  August  gave  itself  to  fasting  and  prayer.  This 
observance,  as  well  as  the  celebration  of  the  anniversary 
of  the  battle  of  Yorktown  and  the  commemoration  of 
the  death  of  the  Ex-President,  J.  K.  Polk,  might  well 


RICHARD  HENRY  EDMONDS  451 

make  a  deep  impression  on  this  youth.  He  heard  of  the 
death,  by  cholera,  of  his  brother,  and  in  his  diary 
recorded  the  hope  that  he  was  "ready  to  go  into  the  mar- 
riage supper  of  the  Lamb."  At  another  place  he  records 
the  conversion  of  another  brother.  While  he  never  came 
to  be  the  regular  pastor  of  any  church,  his  love  for 
preaching  is  distinctly  seen  in  the  way  that  he  preached 
even  when  his  business  engaged  his  time  day  after  day. 
Towards  the  close  of  his  diary,  again  and  again  he  speaks 
of  having  preached.  Indeed,  he  was  pressed  by  the  ques- 
tion whether  he  ought  not  to  be  a  missionary  to  the 
Indians.  His  health,  that  showed  signs  of  giving  way, 
added  another  factor  in  the  problem  as  to  his  duty,  he 
was  trying  to  solve. 

He  was  never  to  come  to  the  full  service  of  a  minister 
of  the  gospel,  yet  the  message  of  his  brief  life  is  clear 
and  strong  for  devotion  to  God  and  for  purity  and 
prayer.  In  such  a  busy  day  as  the  one  in  which  we  live, 
such  a  call  to  consecration  may  well  be  heeded.  Since 
there  was  no  line  of  vessels  making  between  Norfolk  and 
Lancaster,  his  boyhood  home,  he  fell  on  the  habit  of 
traveling  the  sixty  or  more  miles  across  the  wild,  and 
often  stormy,  Chesapeake  Bay,  in  a  little  sailboat,  all  by 
himself.  A  night  and  a  day  on  the  Bay  in  this  boat, 
where,  being  becalmed,  he  was  exposed  to  the  hot  sun 
and  then  to  the  cool  night,  brought  on  the  illness  of 
which,  in  a  few  weeks,  he  died. 

His  parents  were  Rev.  Elias  and  Anna  Lackey 
Edmonds.  He  was  born  Janpary  19,  1831.  On  Decem- 
ber 1,  1852,  he  was  married  by  Rev.  Reuben  Jones  to 
Miss  Mary  Eliza  Ashley,  daughter  of  William  and  Mary 
Elizabeth  Ashley.  Three  children  were  born  of  this 
union,  namely:  William  Henry,  Mary  Elizabeth,  and 
Richard  Hathaway.  Mr.  Edmonds  died  in  Norfolk  on 
July  23,  1858,  and  almost  forty  years  afterwards,  on 
March  28,  1898,  his  widow  followed  him  to  the  grave. 


JAMES  D.  COLEMAN 
—1878 

On  November  21,  1878,  Rev.  James  D.  Coleman  was 
suddenly  called  away  by  death.  "The  last  act  of  his 
earthly  life  was  to  walk  in  the  garden  and  gather  some 
flowers,  and  then  he  returned  to  the  house  and  went  into 
his  chamber,  threw  himself  on  the  bed,  died  instantly,  and 
went  into  the  paradise  of  God  to  gather  fruit  from  the 
tree  of  life,  which  grows  on  either  side  of  the  river  of 
life."  He  was  the  son  of  Thomas  B.  and  Elizabeth  Cole- 
man (nee  Coghill),  and  was  born,  it  seems,  at  "Concord 
Farm,"  Caroline  County,  Virginia.  The  place  where 
Concord  Academy  was  located  was  an  estate  of  1,600 
acres.  Here  Mr.  Coleman  lived  and  farmed  for  many 
years,  owning  a  number  of  slaves.  In  Caroline  County 
his  work  as  a  minister  of  the  gospel  was  done.  In  this 
county  he  was  pastor  of  these  five  churches:  Carmel, 
Bethel,  Bethesda,  Liberty,  and  Round  Oak.  As  early  as 
1855  he  was  pastor  of  the  first  of  these  churches,  with  its 
508  members.  Of  the  second  of  these  churches  he  was 
pastor  for  over  twenty-five  years,  and  of  the  other  three 
for  many  years. 

Rev.  T.  S.  Dunaway  knew  Mr.  Coleman  for  more  than 
a  decade,  having  been  associated  with  him  in  protracted 
meetings,  and  having  spent  days  at  a  time  in  Mr.  Cole- 
man's  home.  He  wrote,  after  Mr.  Coleman's  death,  a 
sketch  of  him  for  the  Religious  Herald.  In  this  sketch 
he  said  :  "As  a  man,  in  his  physique,  he  was  a  noble  speci- 
men of  the  race.  Unusually  tall,  well  proportioned  and 
erect,  his  personal  presence  was  most  commanding.  In 
almost  any  assembly,  however  large  or  distinguished,  he 

452 


JAMES  D.  COLEMAN  453 

would  have  been  a  marked  and  an  observed  man.  He 
looked  like  one  of  nature's  noblemen,  born  for  a  leader 
and  ruler.  In  his  deportment  he  was  dignified  and  polite, 
unostentatiously  impressing  himself  upon  you  as  a  cul- 
tured gentleman.  In  character  and  temperament  he  was 
frank,  sanguine,  and  resolute.  He  was  a  man  of  deep 
convictions,  strong  will,  and  inflexible  purpose.  He 
could  not  be  swerved  from  any  purpose  or  opinion 
except  by  convincing  his  judgment.  All  his  traits  of 
character  were  of  the  positive  sort.  Bold  and  ingenuous, 
he  was  incapable  of  dissembling.  While  by  nature  made 
of  the  'sterner  stuff'  of  which  martyrs  are  made,  yet, 
under  the  softening  touch  of  divine  grace,  he  had  a 
tender  heart,  an  affectionate  disposition,  and  a  warm 
and  sympathetic  manner.  .  .  .  He  had  great  confi- 
dence in  the  efficacy  of  prayer,  and  loved  the  mercy-seat. 
In  a  word,  he  was  a  consecrated  man.  One  of  his  most 
intelligent  church  members  writes  of  him  thus :  'For  the 
past  twelve  years  he  has  neglected  his  farm  and  all 
worldly  interests  and  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  his 
ministerial  duties.  His  favorite  themes  were  faith  in 
Christ  and  the  atonement  so  full  and  so  complete.' 
All  of  his  sermons,  which  were  methodically 
arranged,  showed  study,  thought,  and  great  familiarity 
with  the  Bible  and  other  books.  .  .  .  His  preaching 
was  well  adapted  both  to  edify  Christians  and  to  awaken 
sinners.  He  frequently  held  protracted  meetings  in  his 
own  churches  without  any  ministerial  aid,  and  generally 
with  great  success  in  winning  souls  to  Christ. 
He  was  ardently  attached  to  his  members.  .  .  .  The 
sick  were  visited  by  him,  and  to  the  afflicted  he  adminis- 
tered consolation.  ...  It  was  at  the  bedside  of  a 
dying  woman  that  he  was  attacked  with  the  disease  from 
which  he  never  recovered.  He  went,  the  next  day,  the 
fourth  Sunday  in  December,  1877,  and  preached,  in  great 


454         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

pain,  the  last  sermon  he  ever  delivered,  which  was  one  of 
unusual  unction  and  power.  Elder  Coleman  wielded  a 
mighty  influence  in  his  immediate  field  of  labor  and  in 
the  Goshen  Association,  over  which  he  presided  as 
moderator  for  nine  consecutive  years.  .  .  .  Had  he 
sought  a  more  prominent  place  in  the  denomination  and 
a  more  extended  influence,  and  attended  more  frequently 
our  general  meetings,  his  talents  and  piety  would  have 
secured  for  him  a  place  among  the  foremost  of  the  Bap- 
tist ministers  of  the  South." 


CHARLES  HILL  RYLAND 
1836-1914 

The  first  building  at  Westhampton,  the  home  of 
Greater  Richmond  College,  formally  named  by  the 
Trustees,  perpetuates  the  memory  of  the  first  President 
of  the  College,  and  of  Charles  Hill  Ryland.  In  the  last 
article  that  Dr.  Ryland  ever  wrote  for  publication  he  told 
how  Robert  Burns,  upon  entering  a  new  home,  had  the 
little  servant  go  in  first,  bearing  a  bowl  of  salt  and  the  big 
Bible,  and  suggested  "that  the  formality  of  the  opening 
at  Westhampton  include  a  revival  of  this  unique  old 
Scottish  ceremony ;  that  some  servant  of  the  corporation 
be  commissioned  to  bear  through  the  open  portals  of  the 
iit'w  home  a  copy  of  the  Bible,  which  is  the  source  book 
of  all  true  wisdom,  and  a  bowl  of  salt,  representing  the 
preserving  grace  of  God,  while  a  proud  and  rejoicing 
throng  of  officers,  faculty,  students,  and  other  representa- 
tives of  the  great  family  of  interested  friends,  shall  take 
possession  of  the  Temple  of  Learning,  in  the  name  of 
our  Lord."  And  to  a  loved  one  he  said :  "I  would  love 
to  bear  them,  when  we  move."  But  it  was  not  to  be  so. 
Just  a  few  weeks  before  the  first  session  began  at  West- 
hampton he  passed  away.  It  would  have  been  fortunate 
if  he  could  have  seen  the  work  as  it  started  as  the  new 
site,  for,  with  all  his  associations  with  the  past,  he  was 
deeply  interested  in  the  plans  for  larger  things.  Still,  in 
a  way,  it  was  significant  that  his  life  closed  exactly  with 
the  close  of  the  career  of  the  College  at  the  old  location. 
For  forty  years  he  served  Richmond  College  with  loyal 
heart  and  willing  hands.  In  1874  lie  was  elected  to  the 
position  of  Secretary  and  Treasurer  of  the  College,  and 

455 


456         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

this  position  he  laid  down  after  thirty-seven  years;  but 
until  the  end  of  his  life  he  continued  with  the  institution 
that  he  loved  so  well,  being  still  Secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Trustees  and  Librarian  of  the  College. 

While  Dr.  Ryland  will  be  remembered  for  many  other 
things  his  name  will  be  forever  especially  associated  with 
Richmond  College.  He  was  deeply  interested  in  the  stu- 
dents and  was  greatly  beloved  by  them.  Many  of  them 
counted  his  influence  in  their  lives  one  of  the  best  assets 
that  their  college  days  gave  them.  In  1913  the  Spider, 
the  College  annual,  was  dedicated  to  him,  the  dedication 
telling  of  how  "by  his  strong  character,  his  wisdom,  his 
great  practical  ability,  and  his  unfailing  Christian 
courtesy"  he  won  "the  love  and  confidence  of  thousands 
of  men  and  women  in  and  out  of  Virginia,"  and  of  how 
he  daily  illustrated  to  many  generations  of  college  stu- 
dents "the  shining  virtues  of  noble  living,  unflagging 
energy,  clear  and  sound  thinking,  and  unselfish  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  Christian  Education."  His  career  as 
Treasurer  was  a  most  remarkable  one.  The  tragic  story 
of  institutions  of  learning  where  mistakes  have  been  made 
in  financial  policy,  and  where  bad  investments  have  proved 
fatal,  stands  in  marked  contrast  to  the  history  in  these 
matters  for  forty  years  of  Richmond  College,  and  this 
wonderful  record  was  in  no  small  part  due  to  the 
devotion,  the  painstaking  care,  and  the  sound  judgment 
of  Dr.  Ryland.  Practically  not  a  dollar  was  lost  in  all 
these  years.  It  was  an  interesting  occasion  when,  at  the 
close  of  his  treasureship,  he  handed  over  to  Mr.  B.  West 
Tabb,  his  successor,  the  securities  of  the  College.  The 
transfer  took  a  whole  day.  There  were  present,  besides 
the  outgoing  and  the  incoming  treasurers,  the  Chairman 
of  the  Finance  Committee  of  the  College,  the  President 
of  the  College,  and  an  expert  accountant  of  the  American 
Audit  Company.  "The  conscientious  fidelity  of  the 


CHARLES  HILL  RYLAND  457 

chairman  and  the  accuracy  of  the  accountant  would  have 
satisfied  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States.  Every 
separate  paper  was  opened  and  scrutinized.  It  was  a 
pleasure  also  to  see  the  scrupulous  care  with  which  all 
the  securities  of  the  College  had  been  kept.  Every  bond 
was  in  its  proper  place,  every  coupon  was  accounted  for, 
and  all  books  balanced  to  the  cent."  When  Dr.  Ryland 
had  taken  charge,  the  assets  of  the  College  were  so  much 
smaller  that  the  transfer  was  a  simple  matter.  When 
Dr.  Ryland  became  treasurer,  the  Endowment  Fund  of 
the  College  was  $75,000,  and  when  he  laid  down  the 
work,  it  was  $640,000.  While  Dr.  Ryland  was  ever  the 
friend  of  progress  and  enlargement  in  the  work  of  the 
College,  he  never  was  willing  to  set  such  a  pace  as  to 
jeopardize  the  resources  of  the  College,  or  to  threaten  a 
sound  financial  basis.  Again  and  again  in  the  meetings 
of  the  Trustees  his  voice  sounded  out  this  note.  While 
constantly  careful  about  these  great  matters  he  had  time 
and  thought  for  things  seemingly,  in  comparison,  unim- 
portant, and  yet  not  unimportant.  His  record  of  the 
meetings  of  the  Trustees  of  the  College  was  full  and 
accurate.  At  the  Commencement  of  the  College  in  June, 
1907,  through  Dr.  I.  B.  Lake  the  College  was  presented 
by  some  of  its  friends  with  an  oil  portrait  of  Dr.  Ryland. 
The  College  was  always  on  Dr.  Ryland's  heart,  and  the 
last  thing  that  he  ever  wrote  for  publication  was  a  brief 
summary  of  some  important  events  in  the  history  of  the 
College,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  was  at  work  upon 
an  historical  sketch  of  the  College,  and  a  brief  biography 
of  Dr.  Robert  Ryland. 

Not  alone  in  the  life  of  the  College  did  the  influence 
of  Dr.  Ryland  count  among  Virginia,  and  Southern 
Baptists,  for  good.  Before  going  to  the  College,  and 
during  most  of  his  years  there,  he  wrought  as  a  pastor 
and  preacher.  He  was  sent  forth  into  the  ministry  by 
his  mother  church,  Bruington,  King  and  Queen  County, 


458         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

being  ordained  May  30,  1863.  The  presbytery  was  com- 
posed of  these  ministers :  Richard  Hugh  Bagby,  Andrew 
Broaddus,  J.  R.  Garlick,  J.  H.  Fox,  and  Alfred  Bagby. 
A  letter  from  the  first  of  these  ministers  had  urged  the 
young  man  to  consider  the  claims  of  the  ministry,  and 
this  letter  had  had  a  sympathetic  reply,  and  doubtless  had 
no  little  to  do  with  the  life  choice  he  made.  Before  his 
ordination  he  went,  first  as  a  missionary  from  Bruington 
to  the  Confederate  Army,  and  then  served  as  colporteur 
for  the  Army  Colportage  Board  until  the  War  closed. 
In  1865  he  became  pastor  of  Carmel  Church,  Caroline 
County,  an  organization  that  was  once  known  as 
"Burrus,"  and,  at  even  an  earlier  date,  as  Polecat.  He 
gave  up  this  field  to  take  charge  of  the  Baptist  Sunday 
School  work  of  the  State,  and  from  December,  1869,  to 
January  17,  1874,  was  the  beloved  and  successful  pastor 
of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Alexandria,  succeeding  in 
this  place  Rev.  E.  J.  Willis,  and  being  followed  by  Rev. 
W.  S.  Penick.  In  1870  Dr.  Richard  Hugh  Bagby  died, 
and  Bruington  "promptly  and  persistently"  called  Dr. 
Ryland  to  be  their  pastor.  This  and  other  calls  to  Selma, 
Leigh  Street  (Richmond),  and  Atlanta  he  declined.  In 
1879,  in  connection  with  his  work  at  the  College,  he  be- 
came pastor  of  the  Taylorsville  Church.  After  some  nine 
years  he  gave  up  the  Taylorsville  Church,  but  continued 
to  serve  the  Walnut  Grove  Church.  In  1907,  when  he 
resigned  this  church  after  a  pastorate  of  twenty-five 
years,  the  gift  of  a  loving-cup  gave  expression  to  the 
devotion  of  this  people.  Dr.  Ryland  was  always  an  in- 
teresting and  forceful  speaker  and  a  good  preacher. 
Rev.  S.  M.  Province  tells  of  a  sermon  that  Dr.  Ryland 
preached  in  1867  at  the  Lebanon  Association  from  the 
text:  ''In  the  Lord  put  I  my  trust:  how  say  ye  to  my 
soul,  Flee  as  a  bird  to  your  mountain?"  (Psalm  11  :1), 
which  proved  "one  of  the  great  hours"  of  this  hearer's 


CHARLES  HILL  RYLAND  459 

life.  Another  sermon  that  Dr.  Ryland  preached  was 
epochal  in  the  history  of  Virginia  Baptists.  It  was  the 
introductory  sermon  before  the  General  Association  in 
1882.  The  year  before  Dr.  Ryland  had  been  chairman 
of  a  committee  of  twenty-two  appointed  "to  devise  plans 
for  securing  more  active  cooperation  between  churches, 
District  Associations,  and  this  body."  The  sermon  led 
to  the  establishment  of  the  Committee  on  Cooperation,  a 
committee  that  has  meant  so  much  for  the  development 
of  Virginia  Baptists  along  the  lines  of  beneficence.  A 
resolution  offered  by  Dr.  Ryland,  at  the  General  Asso- 
ciation in  Staunton,  in  1873,  led  to  the  "Memorial  Move- 
ment" of  1873.  An  address  before  the  Alumni  led  to  his 
being  called  to  become  Financial  Secretary ;  and  this  office 
he  accepted,  taking  up  its  work  January,  1 874.  Dr.  Beale 
called  attention,  in  his  obituary,  to  the  fact  that  Dr. 
Ryland  was  the  founder  of  the  Virginia  Baptist  His- 
torical Society,  and  from  1881  until  his  death  its  secre- 
tary, and  then  said :  "He  did  more  for  the  discovery  and 
preservation  of  the  materials  of  our  denominational  his- 
tory than  any  other  man  of  his  day.  He  was  more  active 
than  any  other  in  inducing  churches  to  observe  centennial 
services  with  a  view  to  compiling  and  placing  on  record 
the  events  of  their  history;  he  was  instrumental  in 
securing,  in  connection  with  the  General  Association, 
perhaps  all  the  strictly  historical  meetings  that  have  been 
held.  His  devotion  to  the  work  burned  like  a  holy  fire 
on  the  altar  of  his  heart,  till  strength  and  life  failed  him, 
and  the  future  historian  of  Virginia  Baptists  will  pause 
at  times  amidst  his  toilsome  task  to  take  heart  over  the 
help  received  from  him,  and  to  breathe  a  grateful  bene- 
diction on  the  name  of  Charles  Hill  Ryland."  Dr.  Ry- 
land was  a  safe  and  helpful  counselor,  and  many  sought 
his  advice,  believing  at  once  in  his  ability  to  see  a  question 
from  all  sides,  and  in  his  sincerity  and  unselfishness.  A 
certain  Baptist  pastor  went  to  him  at  a  crisis  in  his  life, 
and  came  away  from  the  interview  helped,  and  more  than 


460         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ever  assured  of  the  guidance  that  God  gives  to  those  who 
want  to  walk  in  the  way  the  Heavenly  Father  would 
have  them  go.  Once  in  the  early  ministry  of  Dr.  Ryland, 
as  he  and  the  family  of  a  brother  preacher  were  leaving 
the  train  at  Variety  Springs,  in  the  Blue  Ridge  Moun- 
tains, if  it  had  not  been  for  his  quick  grasp,  a  little 
daughter  of  the  other  preacher  would  have  rolled  down 
a  steep  embankment ;  this  seems  a  simple  incident,  but  it 
has  its  lesson:  Dr.  Ryland  went  through  life  reaching 
out  the  kindly  hand  of  help. 

Dr.  Ryland  was  born  at  Norwood,  King  and  Queen 
County,  Virginia,  January  22,  1836,  his  parents  being 
Samuel  Peachy  and  Catherine  Gaines  Hill  Ryland. 
After  attending  Fleetwood  Academy  he  entered  Rich- 
mond College  in  1854.  From  Richmond  College  he 
passed  to  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary, 
in  1859,  being  one  of  the  ten  men  whom  Virginia  sent 
to  this  the  first  session  of  the  Seminary.*  On  January 
11,  1911,  Founders'  Day,  Dr.  Ryland  delivered  an  ad- 
dress, at  Louisville,  to  the  Seminary  students  and  Faculty, 
''Recollections  of  the  First  Year  of  the  Southern  Baptist 
Theological  Seminary."  In  this  address  he  told  of  how 
the  students  had  great  discussions  as  to  who  was  the 
better  preacher,  Dr.  Williams  or  Dr.  Broadus.  One  Sun- 
day, when  these  two  men  were  supplying  the  Greenville 
Church  pulpit,  Dr.  Ryland's  roommate,  J.  D.  Witt, 
came  back  from  the  night  service,  having  heard  both 
these  professors  that  day,  and  said :  "Oh,  Ryland,  they 
beat  each  other  every  time."  One  morning  Dr.  Boyce's 
class  in  Systematic  Theology  was  late.  They  explained 
that  they  had  not  had  any  breakfast,  but  that  they  had 
come  anyhow.  Dr.  Boyce  said  they  had  done  well  to 
come,  then  excused  himself  for  a  few  moments,  and 
then  the  lesson  went  on.  At  the  end  of  the  hour,  Dr. 
Boyce  invited  them  into  the  next  room,  where  he  had 

*See  list  of  these  students,  p.  161. 


CHARLES  HILL  RYLAND  461 

for  them  a  delightful  breakfast  from  his  own  table. 
Dr.  Ryland  was  married  on  October  28,  1869,  to  Miss 
Alice  Marion  Garnett,  the  daughter  of  Dr.  John  Muscoe 
Garnett,  of  "Lanefield,"  King  and  Queen  County.  Dr. 
Ryland  died  August  1,  1914,  at  his  home,  Richmond. 
The  funeral  service  that  was  held  at  the  home  was  con- 
ducted by  Rev.  Dr.  W.  W.  Landrum.  Dr.  Landrum 
began  his  remarks  with  these  words:  "Nearly  eighty 
years  of  unsullied  life  and  unselfish  service.'*  The  burial 
was  in  Hollywood.  On  Sunday,  November  15,  1914,  a 
memorial  service  was  held  at  Richmond  College,  when 
President  F.  W.  Boatwright,  Mr.  George  T.  Terrill  (one 
of  the  students),  and  Dr.  R.  H.  Pitt  spoke,  and  Hon. 
J.  Taylor  Ellyson  read  resolutions  adopted  by  the  Board 
of  Trustees.  Dr.  Ryland's  wife  and  these  children 
survive  him:  Julia  Brooke  (Mrs.  Ryland  Knight), 
Annie  E.  (Mrs.  James  Hoge  Ricks),  Marion  Garnett, 
Garnett,  S.  P.  Ryland,  III ;  C.  H.,  Jr. ;  John  M.  Garnett. 

Dr.  Beale,  in  his  obituary  read  before  the  General  As- 
sociation in  Bristol,  said:  "Dr.  Ryland  was  most  efficient 
and  valuable,  not  with  respect  only  to  the  management 
and  prudent  use  of  the  funds  committed  to  his  care,  but 
also  to  those  endeavors,  methods,  and  policies  whereby 
additional  funds  might  be  secured.  Not  in  the  public 
canvasses,  which  augmented  the  revenues  of  the  College, 
merely,  but  in  private  ways  by  word  and  by  letter,  he 
rendered  aid  in  this  matter. 

"His  eye  was  on  the  grounds  and  buildings  for  their 
care  and  preservation  from  defacement  or  injury;  his 
hand  was  busy  in  the  arrangement,  classification,  and 
protection  of  the  Library,  and  was  not  less  so  with  respect 
to  the  portraits,  the  specimens,  and  other  treasures  of  the 
museum.  In  fact,  over  the  College  and  all  its  equipment, 
everywhere,  his  spirit  brooded  with  a  loving  and  un- 
wearied interest.  He  stood  as  a  sentinel  on  the  high 
tower  of  our  educational  wall,  ever  on  the  alert,  ever 
watchful  to  the  last." 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM 
1854-1914 

Dr.  George  Mosse,  an  Irishman  and  a  graduate  of  the 
University  of  Dublin,  married  Miss  Phoebe  Norton,  of 
St.  Helena  Island,  S.  C,  and  a  daughter  of  this  union, 
Miss  Jane,  became  the  wife  of  Benjamin  Themistocles 
Lawton.  A  daughter  of  Mr.  Lawton,  Miss  Phoebe,  be- 
came the  wife  of  Thomas  Willingham,  and  these  were 
the  parents  of  Benjamin  Lawton  Willingham.  In  1848 
Mr.  Benjamin  Lawton  Willingham  was  married  to  Miss 
E.  M.  Baynard,  the  daughter  of  a  wealthy  planter  of 
Beaufort,  S.  C.  Her  mother  was  a  noble  Christian 
woman,  and  her  life  useful  and  beautiful,  spent  in  the 
bosom  of  her  family.  Miss  Baynard  was  educated  at 
Beaufort  and  Charleston,  and  at  the  age  of  fourteen  was 
baptized  by  Dr.  Richard  Fuller.  She  was  a  woman  of 
"marked  intelligence  and  deep  piety."  Her  home  was 
her  kingdom,  she  was  the  companion  of  her  children, 
and,  though  gentle,  her  wish  was  law.  Her  husband  was 
a  remarkable  man.  He  was  a  native  of  Beaufort 
District,  South  Carolina,  and  was  educated  at  the  South 
Carolina  Military  School,  Charleston.  He  became  a  man 
of  striking  personality,  strong  will,  a  leader  of  men,  a 
tower  of  strength  in  his  church,  respected  and  esteemed 
by  his  community.  To  this  husband  and  wife  nine  sons 
and  four  daughters  were  born.  The  third  son  of  this 
large  family,  Robert  Josiah,  first  saw  the  light  May  15, 
1854,  in  Beaufort  District,  South  Carolina.  About  a 
year  after  this  event  the  family  moved  to  Allendale, 
Barnwell  County,  and  here,  save  for  brief  intervals,  the 
early  years  of  Robert  Willingham  were  spent.  "Gravel 
Hill,"  the  Willingham  residence,  near  Allendale,  was  a 

462 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM         463 

large,  comfortable,  old-fashioned  house,  with  big  porches, 
big  attic,  and  high  chimneys.  The  meeting-house  of 
Concord  Church,  where  the  family  worshiped,  was  a 
substantial  but  plain  frame  building,  with  the  entrance 
on  the  side,  and  was  about  three  miles  from  "Gravel 
Hill."  The  Sunday  school  knew  nothing  of  "lesson 
helps"  and  "graded  lessons,"  but  catechisms  were  so  used 
that  the  children  learned  from  them  the  real  gist  of  the 
gospel,  and  along  with  the  catechisms  went  learning  by 
heart  many  verses  from  the  Bible;  hymns  were  also 
committed  to  memory.  One  day  the  superintendent 
announced  that  the  scholars  must  all  learn  by  heart  all  of 
the  hymn  "From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains."  There 
was  one  little  boy  there  that  day  who  thought  that  he 
was  so  small  he  would  not  be  expected  to  learn  this 
hymn,  but  in  this  he  was  mistaken.  It  was  his  mother's 
custom,  on  the  way  home  from  church  on  Sunday,  to 
talk  to  the  children  about  the  sermon  and  the  lessons  of 
the  day,  and  at  this  time  she  also  taught  them  hymns. 
So  Sabbath  after  Sabbath  the  hymn  was  worked  at  until 
the  little  boy  was  able  to  stand  up  before  the  whole  school 
and  recite  it.  Especially  did  these  lines 

"Shall  we  whose  souls  are  lighted 

With  wisdom  from  on  high, 
Shall  we  to  men  benighted 
The  lamp  of  life  deny?" 

rivet  themselves  upon  the  heart  of  the  boy.  As  the 
years  came  and  went  they  rang  in  his  memory,  and  no 
doubt  had  much  to  do  with  making  him  at  last  a  great 
mission  secretary.  The  two  brothers,  Calder  and  Robert, 
were  nearly  the  same  age,  and  as  boys  they  ate,  slept, 
studied,  played,  and  prayed  together,  and  on  the  fourth 
Sunday  in  August,  1867,  both  were  baptized  by  Rev. 
Joseph  A.  Lawton. 

In  the  fall  of  1868  Robert  entered  the  University  of 
Georgia,  Athens.     In  1873,  after  four  years  in  the  Uni- 


464         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

versity,  and  one  year  in  the  middle  of  his  college  course 
spent  in  business,  he  was  graduated.  The  next  four 
years  were  given  to  teaching  and  to  business.  His  father 
was  now  a  resident  of  Macon,  Ga.,  and  Robert  became 
first  assistant  and  then  Principal  of  the  Macon  High 
School.  In  June,  1877,  he  entered  his  father's  cotton 
warehouse  and  commenced  to  study  law  at  night.  On 
September  8,  1877,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Sarah 
Corneille  Bacon,  the  beautiful  and  accomplished  daughter 
of  Robert  and  Belle  Walton  Bacon,  of  Albany,  Ga.  Now 
a  crisis  came  in  the  young  man's  life.  He  heard  a  call. 
One  day,  as  he  was  sitting  on  a  street  car  waiting  for  it 
to  start,  Deacon  Walker,  his  head  white  and  his  form 
bowed,  came  in.  Presently  the  old  man  said  :  "My  young 
brother,  has  it  ever  occurred  to  you  that  God  wants  you 
in  some  other  business  than  that  in  which  you  are  now 
engaged?"  The  young  man  looked  up  and  answered: 
"Why  do  you  ask  such  a  question?"  "Because,"  said 
the  deacon,  "I  have  an  idea  that  God  wants  you  to 
preach."  The  young  man,  thinking  that  some  of  his 
kin  people  had  been  talking  to  the  old  gentleman,  said: 
"Who  has  been  talking  to  you  about  this?"  "No  one," 
replied  the  deacon:  "I  have  simply  been  impressed  this 
way,  and  thought  I  would  mention  it  to  you."  The  same 
impression  had  already  come  to  the  young  man,  and  not 
long  after  this  conversation,  in  front  of  his  father's 
counting  house,  he  said  to  his  father:  "I  believe,  after 
all,  I  will  have  to  preach.  I  can  not  get  around  it.  The 
conviction  is  on  me  by  day  and  by  night.  I  want  to  do 
what  God  wants  me  to  do,  and  I  am  impressed  that  to 
preach  is  His  will."  At  these  words  great  tears  ran  down 
his  father's  cheeks  as  he  said  :  "Why,  my  boy,  the  evening 
you  were  born  I  prayed  for  that.  I  went  aside  into  the 
little  shed  room  of  our  home  and  prayed  God,  if  it  was 
His  will,  to  make  you  a  preacher  of  the  gospel;  but  my 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM         465 

faith  had  grown  very  weak."  So  weak  had  the  father's 
faith  grown  that,  as  his  sons  grew  up  and  as  he  saw 
Robert's  turn  for  business,  he  was  wont  to  say:  "R.  J. 
will  be  one  day  the  richest  of  my  boys."  On  December 
19,  1877,  the  young  man  was  licensed  to  preach  by  the 
First  Baptist  Church,  Macon,  and  the  first  day  of  the  fol- 
lowing January,  having  left  his  family  in  Macon,  he 
reached  Louisville  to  enter  the  Southern  Baptist  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  He  preached  his  first  sermon  January 
28,  1878,  and  on  June  2,  1878,  was  ordained,  at  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  Macon,  the  presbytery  being  composed 
of  these  ministers :  Drs.  T.  E.  Skinner,  S.  Boykin,  A.  J. 
Battle,  J.  J.  Brantley,  and  T.  C.  Teasdale.  His  second 
year  at  the  Seminary,  Mr.  Willingham  had  his  family 
with  him.  Before  this  session  was  out,  however,  he 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Talbotton  (Georgia)  Church.  For 
part  of  his  time  at  Talbotton  he  served  also  Geneva, 
Valley  Grove,  and  Thomaston  Churches.  To  reach  his 
Thomaston  appointment  he  had  to  drive  twenty  miles. 
Barnesville  was  his  next  pastorate.  Here  he  found  the 
Baptists  weak  and  discouraged,  but  before  his  pastorate 
came  to  an  end  a  spendid  meeting-house  costing  $9,000 
had  been  built  and  paid  for,  and  the  membership  largely 
increased.  In  1887  he  received  two  calls,  one  to  the  First 
Church,  Houston,  Texas,  and  the  other  to  the  First 
Church,  Chattanooga,  Tenn.  He  accepted  the  call  to 
Chattanooga,  and  during  the  four  years  of  his  pastorate 
there  led  his  people  in  the  erection  of  a  handsome  stone 
meeting-house  that  cost  some  $50,000,  and  received  into 
the  church  496  members.  During  this  pastorate  he  was 
given  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Divinity  from  Mossy 
Creek  (now  Carson-Newman)  College,  and  took  a  trip 
to  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Palestine.  Towards  the  close  of 
1891  he  became  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  Memphis, 
Tenn.  This  charge  continued  a  year  and  nine  months, 


466         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

and  from  Memphis  he  moved  to  Richmond  to  assume  the 
secretaryship  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board,  a  work  to 
which  he  was  to  give  some  twenty-one  years  of  his  life, 
and  render  the  greatest  service  of  his  ministry.  It  is 
interesting  to  remember  that  all  through  his  fifteen  years 
as  pastor  and  preacher,  up  to  the  time  when  he  took 
charge  of  the  arduous  duties  in  Richmond,  he  was  always 
the  zealous  champion  of  Foreign  Missions.  An  examina- 
tion of  numerous  associational  minutes  shows  that  at 
almost  every  session  of  the  district  and  State  gatherings 
of  which  he  was  a  member  he  made  the  report  or  spoke 
on  missions.  Long  before  the  Laymen's  Movement  he 
called  special  attention  to  the  obligation  of  laymen  in  the 
matter  of  education  and  giving.  At  the  Tennessee  Con- 
vention, in  1889,  in  his  report  on  Foreign  Missions,  he 
said :  "Our  pastors  should  preach  and  teach  that  the 
people  should  know.  Our  leading  laymen  should  empha- 
size by  word  and  deed  the  truth  taught,  while  every 
Christian  should  seek  and  use  the  many  sources  of  in- 
formation now  so  easily  obtained.  .  .  .  Besides  this, 
we  need  system.  Not  sporadic,  spasmotic,  high-pressure 
effort  for  giving,  but  regular,  faithful  worship  of  God  in 
this  grace  also.  .  .  .  Every  church  should  have  a 
committee  of  one  or  more  whose  special  duty  it  should 
be  to  see  that  Foreign  Missions  is  faithfully  presented  to 
the  people,  and  that  they  are  urged  to  give  of  their  means 
to  its  prosecution." 

In  becoming  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the  Foreign 
Mission  Board  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  Dr. 
Willingham  was  the  third  to  hold  this  office,  his  prede- 
cessors being  James  B.  Taylor  and  H.  A.  Tupper.  For 
his  work  he  had  a  remarkable  combination  of  physical 
and  spiritual  power,  with  an  inherited  gift  for  business 
affairs.  Upon  coming  to  Richmond  he  was  in  the  full 
tide  of  a  vigorous  manhood.  He  was  a  man  of  com- 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM         467 

manding  appearance.  He  was  six  feet  one  inch  tall  and 
weighed  some  250  pounds.  He  would  have  attracted 
attention  in  any  crowd.  A  few  years  later,  when  he  was 
setting  out  to  go  around  the  world  and  visit  the  various 
mission  stations  of  his  Board,  he  was  on  the  Minnesota, 
the  ship  that  carried  Mr.  Taft,  who  was  then  Secretary 
of  War,  and  was  going  on  business  of  the  United  States 
to  the  Philippines.  A  picture  of  the  two  men  was  taken 
under  which  was  written :  "Secretary  of  War  and 
Secretary  of  Peace."  And  there  was  little  to  choose 
between  the  two  men  as  to  nobility  of  appearance  and 
carriage.  Dr.  Willingham  was  a  fine  business  man.  One 
of  a  group  of  brothers  all  of  them  remarkable  for  their 
business  ability,  his  brother  Broadus  said  of  him:  "Bob 
is  the  best  business  man  of  us  all.  If  he  had  turned  his 
attention  to  money-making  he  would  have  been  the 
richest."  Before  entering  the  ministry  he  had  put  away 
a  goodly  sum  for  when  men  have  to  depend  on  their  sav- 
ings to  live.  Dr.  T.  P.  Bell  says  that  while  Dr.  Willing- 
ham  was  Secretary  he  laid  all  this  on  the  Master's  altar. 
He  resisted  efforts  to  increase  his  salary,  and  always  kept 
his  salary  $500  behind  any  other  secretary  of  any  Board 
of  the  Convention.  Under  his  leadership  the  gifts  of 
Southern  Baptists  to  Foreign  Missions  rose  in  these 
twenty-one  years  from  $106,332,  in  1893,  to  $587,458, 
in  1914.  Dr.  Willingham  brought  to  his  task  in  Rich- 
mond the  enthusiasm  of  a  great  heart,  a  genuine  and 
absorbing  piety,  and  a  commanding  and  resolute  will. 
The  work  of  a  world-wide  evangelization  became  the 
passion  of  his  soul.  In  the  secret  chambers  of  his  life, 
and  in  the  presence  of  great  multitudes,  he  believed  in 
the  power  of  prayer  and  the  need  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
His  public  addresses  for  missions  were  powerful  chiefly, 
perhaps,  because  those  who  heard  him  believed  so  fully 
in  the  sincerity  and  earnestness  of  the  man.  It  was  not 


468         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

an  uncommon  thing  to  see  him  and  his  audience  with 
tears  flowing  down  their  faces,  as  they  planned  and 
pledged  for  greater  things  for  God  and  His  kingdom. 
His  faith  was  simple  and  strong.  "He  believed  sincerely 
that  men  everywhere  are  hopelessly  lost  without  a  saving 
knowledge  of  Jesus  as  Saviour.  To  the  making  of  Christ 
known,  in  the  remotist  regions  of  the  world,  Dr.  Willing- 
ham  devoted  every  atom  of  strength  at  his  command. 
.  .  .  Hardly  ever  did  he  make  an  address  without 
portraying  the  divine  origin  of  missions."  Dr.  Landrum, 
in  his  address  at  Dr.  Willingham's  funeral,  called  atten- 
tion to  how  often  he  began  his  public  prayer  with  the 
exclamation,  "Holy,  holy,  holy,"  and  then  said:  "Will- 
ingham  was  a  subject,  a  loyal  subject,  of  the  King 
eternal,  immortal,  invisible.  At  the  same  time  through 
grace  he  was  a  son  of  God,  and  held  daily  intercourse 
with  Jesus  Christ,  his  elder  brother  and  Saviour.  When 
he  knelt  in  prayer  with  a  small  group  of  his  brethren  he 
literally  talked  to  the  Lord  Jesus,  calling  Him  'blessed 
Master'  with  a  tone  of  intense  affection  I  have  never 
heard  coming  from  any  other  human  lips."  Dr.  Bell  says 
that  once  after  a  speech  of  Dr.  Willingham  had  greatly 
moved  the  Convention  a  brother  said  to  him :  "What  is 
there  in  Willingham's  speaking  that  produces  such 
effect?"  Dr.  Bell  replied:  "He  is  the  incarnation  of  a 
great  cause,  and  that  cause  speaks  out  through  him,  with- 
out let  or  hindrance.  It  is  not  Willingham,  it  is  Foreign 
Missions."  At  another  time  a  keen  observer  compared 
him  with  another  speaker,  regarded  as  quite  an  orator, 

and  said :    "When  you  hear  -    speak,  you  feel  that 

his  was  a  great  speech,  and  you  go  away  thinking  of 
— 's   great   speaking  power.      But   when   you  hear 
Bob  Willingham  you  go  away  thinking  Foreign  Missions 
is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world." 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM         469 

Whether  in  the  office  at  Richmond,  or  going  through 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  South,  or  on  the  platform 
as  a  speaker  for  the  cause  he  loved  so  well,  he  was  a 
tireless  worker.  With  pen  and  voice  and  purse  and 
thought  he  labored  for  the  success  of  missions.  No  one 
could  come  near  him  and  not  feel  the  earnestness  and 
zeal  of  the  man.  Everything  seemed  secondary  with  him 
to  the  great  purpose  of  his  life.  He  brought  things  to 
pass.  With  him  business  sense  and  deep  consecration 
and  love  to  God  were  wedded  in  a  blessed  union.  At  all 
times  resourceful,  when  the  crisis  of  a  debt  threatened 
he  redoubled  efforts  and  devised  new  plans  for  victory. 
The  figures  give  inadequately  the  story  of  what  was 
done  for  missions  in  the  twenty  years  of  his  leadership. 
The  report  of  the  Foreign  Board  to  the  Convention,  after 
Dr.  Willingham's  death,  contrasting  the  beginning  and 
close  of  his  service  with  the  Board,  said :  "Then  there 
were  only  a  few  day  schools;  now  there  are  schools 
ranging  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  college  and  the 
theological  seminary.  Then  there  were  no  hospitals  or 
printing  plants ;  now  there  are  eight  hospital  buildings, 
where  eleven  medical  missionaries  treated  74,839  patients 
last  year,  and  a  number  of  printing  plants,  which  send 
out  millions  of  pages  of  literature.  One  of  the  greatest 
achievements  of  Dr.  Willingham's  administration  was 
the  remarkable  increase  of  interest  and  growth  in  con- 
tributions from  the  churches.  ...  In  1893  there 
was  hardly  a  church  in  the  whole  Convention  that  had 
any  adequate  conception  of  its  duty  to  Foreign  Missions, 
if  we  are  to  judge  the  interest  of  the  church  by  its  con- 
tributions. Then  Virginia  led  all  the  States  with  a  total 
contribution  of  $22,803;  in  1914,  Virginia  again  led  with 
$80,655.  It  would  be  a  remarkable  story  if  we  could 
tell  it;  how  the  great  Secretary  went  from  church  to 
church,  and  with  burning  appeals  aroused  the  people  to 


470         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

do  far  greater  things.  Often  with  a  single  supreme 
effort  he  increased  the  contributions  of  a  church  many- 
fold  for  world-wide  missions." 

Upon  moving  to  Richmond,  Dr.  Willingham  pur- 
chased, as  his  predecessor,  Dr.  Tupper,  had  done  upon 
coming  to  Richmond,  a  spacious  home.  The  residence 
Dr.  Willingham  bought  was  on  the  northeast  corner  of 
Fifth  and  Gary  Streets,  and  was  built  by  Mr.  Wm. 
Barrett.  Here  Dr.  Willingham  maintained  his  home, 
with  his  many  children,  in  generous  and  comfortable, 
but  not  lavish  or  extravagant,  style,  and  received  in 
gracious  hospitality  hundreds  not  to  say  thousands  of 
his  brethren,  and  scores  of  missionaries.  Towards  the 
end  of  his  life,  when  some  of  his  children  had  gone  to 
homes  of  their  own,  he  sold  this  large  house  and  moved 
to  a  smaller  one.  Dr.  Willingham  was  a  faithful  church 
member,  not  allowing  his  official  duties  to  keep  him  from 
interest  and  loyalty  to  his  pastor  and  church.  He  was 
in  the  habit  of  going  to  prayer-meeting,  and  often 
preached  in  the  Richmond  churches  of  his  own  and  other 
denominations.  After  his  death  one  of  the  secular  papers 
in  an  editorial  said :  "He  found  time  in  the  midst  of 
nerve-consuming  labors  to  perform  that  personal 
Christian  service  dear  to  his  heart.  Sometimes  he 
staggered  under  the  burden  of  his  work,  and  sometimes 
he  seemed  ready  to  fall  in  his  tracks,  but  he  was  scarcely 
less  frequent  in  visitation  than  was  the  pastor  of  the 
church  to  which  he  belonged,  and  scarcely  less  constant 
in  his  devotion  to  the  suffering.  Many  an  humble  mis- 
sion, many  a  struggling  colored  congregation,  many  a 
heart-wrung  man,  torn  with  temptation,  was  blessed  by 
his  endeavors.  He  never  forgot,  and  often  after  months 
of  separation,  he  would  take  up,  precisely  where  he  left 
it,  some  argument  he  had  used  in  persuading  a  friend  to 
nobler  service." 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM         471 

Dr.  Willingham  was  devoted  to  his  family,  and  strove 
to  make  them  happy.  Since  he  came  from  a  large  house- 
hold he  knew  how  to  adapt  himself  to  children.  "From 
their  babyhood  he  romped  and  played  with  them,  tossing 
them  up  in  the  air  and  riding  them  on  his  feet.  As  they 
grew  older  he  would  sing  to  them  and  with  them,  enter- 
taining them  with  his  college  songs  as  well  as  with 
Sunday-school  hymns.  When  the  children  had  company 
he  put  himself  out  to  help  entertain  them  ;  was  very  fond 
of  young  people;  enjoyed  teasing  them.  He  played 
chess,  checkers,  and  backgammon  with  his  children  dur- 
ing their  vacation,  and  in  the  late  afternoons  he  and  his 
older  boys  had  games  of  quoits.  As  his  children  grew 
older  he  enjoyed  walking  with  them,  strolling,  chatting, 
and  getting  acquainted.  He  would  take  them  fishing 
and  often  went  swimming  in  the  river  with  the  boys. 
He  looked  forward  to  the  little  family  picnics  in  the  late 
afternoons ;  with  a  basket  of  good  things  all  would  take 
the  car  for  Forest  Hill  or  Westhampton  Park  for  a 
pleasant  time.  ...  He  seemed  to  feel  it  a  privilege 
to  show  attention  to  the  sons  and  daughters  of  his 
Baptist  brethren  at  school  in  Richmond.  So,  many  stu- 
dents from  Richmond  College  and  the  Woman's  College 
came  under  his  roof.  The  last  week  of  his  life  he 
thoroughly  enjoyed  having  several  College  boys  to  tea. 
He  was  especially  fond  of  music,  and  always  delighted  to 
have  a  crowd  of  young  people  gathered  around  the  piano 
singing  the  old  songs,  and  often  he  joined  in." 

After  having  been  urged  for  years  by  his  brethren  to 
take  a  trip  to  the  far-away  mission  stations,  on  Septem- 
ber 2,  1907,  he  set  out  on  such  a  trip  with  his  wife,  her 
expenses  being  provided  privately  by  the  generosity  of 
one  or  two  churches,  friends,  and  relatives.  They 
crossed  the  continent  and  visited  the  mission  stations  of 
the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  in  Japan,  China,  and 


472         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Italy,  and  also  those  of  the  Northern  Baptists  in  Burmah, 
and  of  the  English  Baptists  in  India.  On  April  8,  1908, 
he  returned  to  his  native  land.  What  shall  be  said  of  his 
zeal  for  missions  now,  since  it  burned  as  a  flame  before 
he  had  seen  with  his  own  eyes  the  needs  of  the  harvest 
fields?  He  would  not  pause  to  rest  after  his  long 
journey,  but  began  immediately,  by  speeches  at  the 
Seminary  and  before  the  Convention,  to  lay  afresh  on 
the  hearts  of  his  brethren  the  great  work. 

In  the  fall  of  1913  his  health  began  to  fail.  Upon  his 
return  that  year  from  the  Maryland  Convention,  where 
he  had  delivered  an  address  on  the  life  of  Dr.  R.  H. 
Graves,  of  Canton,  he  was  taken  sick.  When  he  came 
to  realize  how  ill  he  was  he  said  one  day  to  the  doctor: 
"Doctor,  my  work  is  almost  over."  After  nine  weeks  in 
his  room  he  went  South  seeking  renewed  strength.  He 
was  anxious  to  be  back  at  his  work,  and  returned  the 
middle  of  March.  Every  morning  he  would  go  down  to 
the  Foreign  Board  office.  An  unknown  gentleman  in 
Richmond  was  much  impressed  by  this  earnestness  of 
Dr.  Willingham,  and  told  Dr.  Willingham's  son,  whom 
he  met  on  the  way  to  the  High  School,  that  what  his 
father  was  doing  day  by  day  in  going  thus  to  the  office 
was  one  of  the  bravest  sights  he  ever  saw.  Sunday 
morning,  December  20,  1914,  on  his  way  to  Sunday 
school,  Dr.  Willingham  felt  badly,  and  stopped  at  the 
Jefferson  Hotel,  that  was  just  one  square  from  his 
church.  All  was  done  that  friends  and  physicians  could 
do,  but  he  had  come  to  the  end  of  his  journey,  and  in 
two  hours  he  breathed  his  last. 

The  funeral,  which  took  place  at  the  Second  Baptist 
Church,  was  conducted  by  the  pastor,  Rev.  Dr.  T.  Clagett 
Skinner,  who  was  assisted  in  the  services  by  Rev.  Dr. 
J.  B.  Hutson,  President  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board ; 
Rev.  Dr.  B.  D.  Gray,  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 


ROBERT  JOSIAH  WILLINGHAM         473 

Home  Mission  Board ;  Rev.  Dr.  C.  S.  Gardner,  Professor 
in  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary ;  Rev.  Dr. 
R.  H.  Pitt,  Editor  of  the  Religions  Herald;  Rev.  Dr. 
Emory  W.  Hunt,  of  the  Foreign  Mission  Society  of  the 
Northern  Baptist  Convention ;  Rev.  Dr.  W.  H.  Smith, 
Rev.  Dr.  T.  B.  Ray,  and  Rev.  Dr.  J.  F.  Love,  Secretaries 
of  the  Foreign  Mission  Board ;  and  Rev.  Dr.  W.  W. 
Landrum,  Pastor  of  the  Broadway  Baptist  Church, 
Louisville,  Ky.  The  body  was  laid  to  rest  in  Hollywood 
Cemetery,  near  the  graves  of  Curry,  Hawthorne, 
Hatcher,  and  Whitsitt. 

Dr.  Willingham  was  survived  by  his  wife  and  these 
children:  Robert  J.,  Jr.;  Corneille  (Mrs.  James  W. 
Downer),  Calder  Trueheart,  Benjamin  Joseph,  Belle 
(Mrs.  Ralph  H.  Ferrell),  Elizabeth  Walton  Willingham, 
Carrie  Irvin  (Mrs.  T.  Justin  Moore),  Harris  E.,  Edward 
Bacon. 


HENRY  W.  DODGE 
1815— 

On  March  28,  1859,  Dr.  William  F.  Broaddus  wrote 
from  Fredericksburg  to  his  friend,  Wm.  H.  Cabaniss, 
of  Lynchburg,  suggesting  that  the  church  in  Lynchburg 
call  Rev.  H.  W.  Dodge,  then  pastor  in  Berryville.  In 
the  letter  Dr.  Broaddus  said  of  Dr.  Dodge:  "He  is  a 
very  excellent  preacher,  of  fine  education,  and  of  lovely 
character.  He  has  an  amiable  wife  and  three  children. 
I  think  (I  am  not  sure),  he  could  be  moved.  He  has 
been  years  in  his  present  field,  universally  loved  and 
honored.  Should  you  think  of  him,  correspond  with 
him  speedily.  He  will  be  much  in  demand."  (The 
Berryville  Church  Minutes  show  that  he  became  pastor 
in  September,  1853,  and  that  he  resigned  August  20, 
1859.)  The  Lynchburg  church  called  Dr.  Dodge,  he 
accepted  the  call,  and  in  July,  1859,  began  his  work  in 
Lynchburg.  The  very  day  that  his  family  passed 
Harper's  Ferry,  on  their  way  to  Lynchburg,  John  Brown 
was  hiding  in  the  neighboring  mountains.  Dr.  Dodge 
continued  as  pastor  in  Lynchburg  until  1867.  During 
this  pastorate  many,  who  are  now  members  of  the  First 
Church,  were  brought  into  the  kingdom  of  God.  One 
of  the  oldest  members  of  the  church  tells  of  a  glorious 
revival  in  the  church,  during  the  War,  that  went  on  for 
three  or  four  months,  Dr.  Dodge  conducting  the  meeting, 
the  singing  being  led  by  Mr.  Cabaniss. 

At  the  annual  session  of  the  General  Association,  in 
1854,  at  which  session  J.  G.  Oncken,  of  Germany,  was 
present  and  spoke,  Dr.  Dodge  was  appointed  to  preach 
the  next  year  the  introductory  sermon.  The  next  session 

474 


HENRY  W.  DODGE  475 

was  held  in  Charlottesville,  commencing  on  Thursday, 
May  31st.  The  minutes  record  that  "On  motion  the 
Association  adjourned  to  hear  the  introductory  sermon, 
which  was  preached  by  Brother  H.  W.  Dodge,  from 
Jeremiah  23 :  6,  The  Lord  our  righteousness'."  This 
year  the  Berryville  church,  which  was  then  in  the  Salem 
Union  Association,  reported  78  baptisms.  The  follow- 
ing year  the  minutes  show  that  Dr.  Dodge  had  baptized 
into  the  fellowship  of  his  church  Rev.  John  T.  Tabler, 
a  Lutheran  minister,  who  became  a  missionary  of  the 
State  Mission  Board  in  Highland  County.  In  1860  Dr. 
Dodge  was  appointed  on  several  important  committees 
of  the  General  Association,  and  as  a  delegate  to  the 
Western  Association  that  was  to  meet  that  year  in  Fin- 
castle.  He  was  chairman  of  a  committee  to  report  the 
following  year  "on  the  best  system  of  religious  in- 
struction for  our  colored  people."  The  following  year 
the  committee  having  no  report  it  was  continued,  and  it 
was  several  years  before  any  report  on  this  subject  was 
made,  and  then  there  seems  to  have  been  a  different 
committee. 

From  Lynchburg  Dr.  Dodge  moved  to  the  Potomac 
Association,  some  time  in  1865  or  1866,  and  took  charge 
of  these  churches:  Pleasant  Vale,  Upperville,  and 
Ebenezer.  About  1870  he  resigned  Pleasant  Vale  to 
accept  a  call  to  Ketockton.  He  resigned  the  pastorate  of 
these  churches  in  January,  1872,  and  then  went  to  Texas, 
where  the  rest  of  his  life  was  spent.  He  was  married 
twice;  his  first  wife  was  Miss  Abbie  Brown,  of  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  the  daughter  of  Rev.  Dr.  O.  B.  Brown. 
The  only  child  of  this  marriage  (Mrs.  William  Kerfoot) 
is  still  living.  His  second  wife  was  Mrs.  Ida  Latham; 
with  her  Dr.  Dodge  conducted  a  school  in  Lynchburg 
after  the  War.  The  two  children  of  this  marriage  were 
William  R.  and  Clarence. 


476         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

Dr.  Dodge  was  a  man  of  scholarship  and  literary 
tastes.  He  was  fond  of  books,  and  in  his  old  age,  when 
he  did  not  have  large  means  for  the  purchase  of  books, 
he  wrote  to  a  friend  that  he  must  needs  content  himself 
with  reading  the  titles.  He  was  of  the  opinion  that 
every  one  should  read  with  ease  some  other  language 
than  his  own;  his  choice  would  have  been,  "Greek — 
modern  Greek,"  for  he  agreed  with  a  French  author  in 
regarding  the  Greek  as  the  most  beautiful  language  in 
the  world.  One  who  knew  Dr.  Dodge  well  calls  him 
"one  of  our  greatest  preachers,  poetical,  scholarly,  pro- 
found, magnetic."  He  was  born  November  16,  1815,  in 
Rappahannock  County. 


VINCENT  THOMAS  SETTLE 
1823-1892 

Rather  the  larger  part  of  the  ministry  of  Rev.  Vincent 
Thomas  Settle  was  spent  in  Missouri.  He  was,  however, 
a  native  of  Virginia,  and  some  seventeen  years  he  labored 
in  the  Old  Dominion.  He  was  born  May  28,  1823,  at 
"Mountain  View"  farm,  Warren  County  (then  Frederick 
County),  Virginia,  his  parents  being  Vincent  and 
Catherine  Shull  Settle.  He  was  one  of  thirteen  children, 
seven  boys  and  six  girls,  and,  of  this  number,  nine  lived 
to  mature  age.  "Mountain  View,"  his  birthplace,  was 
originally  granted  to  Lord  Fairfax  by  the  Crown.  After 
having  studied  at  the  Lisbon  and  Front  Royal  Academies, 
Professors  Latham  and  J.  Worthington  Smith  being 
among  his  teachers,  he  himself  was  an  assistant  in  the 
latter  institution  for  several  years.  Upon  his  conversion 
he  was  baptized,  by  Rev.  John  Ogilvie,  into  the  fellow- 
ship of  the  Goose  Creek  (now  Pleasant  Vale)  Baptist 
Church,  Fauquier  County,  Virginia.  In  October,  1853, 
at  Front  Royal,  he  was  licensed  to  preach,  and,  in  August 
of  the  following  year,  he  and  his  brother,  Josiah  J.  Settle, 
were  ordained  at  St.  Stephen's  Church,  Nelson  County. 
His  first  pastorate,  in  1856  and  1857,  was  at  Lexington, 
Va.,  and  his  next  at  Mount  Crawford,  Rockingham 
County,  Virginia.  At  this  latter  place  he  remained  from 
1858  to  1861,  and  here  he  was  married,  April  30,  1859,  to 
Miss  Caroline  L.  Turley,  youngest  daughter  of  Cyrus 
and  Elizabeth  Turley.  Of  the  five  sons  and  three 
daughters  born  of  this  union,  one  son  and  one  daughter 
died  in  infancy.  About  1863,  under -the  employ  of  the 
Old  ( Goshen )  Board,  he  preached  for  the  Mount  Moriah 
Church,  Amherst  County.  Before  leaving  Virginia  to 

477 


478         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

live  in  the  West,  he  had  ministered,  at  one  time  or 
another,  to  these  churches :  Rose  Union  and  Jonesboro, 
Nelson  County ;  Adiel,  Albemarle  County ;  and  Ebenezer, 
Amherst  County.  The  Minutes  of  the  General  Asso- 
ciation for  1856  show  that  that  year  he  attended  the 
meeting  of  the  body  in  Lynchburg,  as  a  delegate  from 
Ebenezer  Church.  His  last  pastorate  in  Virginia  was  at 
Mount  Moriah. 

In  1872  he  moved  to  Missouri,  where  for  fifteen  years 
he  labored  under  the  State  and  Home  Boards.  He 
organized  the  Baptist  Church,  at  Fredericktown,  Mo., 
and  during  his  pastorate  there  the  first  meeting-house 
was  built  and  paid  for.  His  other  pastorates  in  Missouri 
were  Ironton,  Potosi,  Greenville,  Desarc,  Oran,  Kelso, 
and  Pleasant  Hill.  The  last  year  of  his  life  he  was 
missionary  of  the  St.  Francis  Association,  and  in  this 
capacity  visited  all  the  churches  in  the  Association.  In 
this  year  he  raised  enough  money  to  pay  his  own  salary 
and  all  the  indebtedness  of  the  Association,  and  reported 
111  conversions  and  103  baptisms.  His  last  sermon  was 
at  the  Wayne  County  Association,  September,  1892, 
when  his  text  was :  "For  if  any  be  a  hearer  of  the  word 
and  not  a  doer,  he  is  like  unto  a  man  beholding  his  natural 
face  in  a  glass."  James  1 :  23.  He  passed  away  at 
Fredericktown,  Mo.,  October  30,  1892.  His  wife,  who 
survived  him,  died  in  the  spring  of  1915,  and  one  of  his 
sisters,  Mrs.  Sarah  Settle  Brown,  still  resides  in 
Columbus,  Ohio.  Professor  Joseph  R.  Long,  of  Wash- 
ington and  Lee  University,  through  Mr.  F.  V.  Settle, 
of  Amherst,  Va.,  secured  from  Mrs.  Brown  practically 
all  of  the  facts  contained  in  this  sketch. 


GEORGE  B.  BEALER 

1824-1870 

At  the  close  of  the  Civil  War,  Rev.  George  B.  Bealer 
became  pastor  of  the  Freemason  Street  Church,  Norfolk, 
Va.,  but  since  his  lungs  were  weak  he  did  not 
remain  long  in  Norfolk.  From  Norfolk  he  went  to  the 
pastorate  of  the  church  at  Madison,  Ga.  After  eighteen 
months  at  this  place,  his  health  continuing  to  decline,  he 
gave  up  work  and  was  carried  to  Atlanta  for  treatment. 
There  he  died  June  2,  1870.  He  was  born  in  Graham- 
ville,  S.  C,  in  1824,  and  just  before  his  death  he  begged 
to  be  carried  back  to  South  Carolina,  saying:  "Bury  me 
in  the  lowlands.  My  heart  is  not  here.  It  is  among  the 
people  I  know  and  love."  The  body  was  taken  back  to 
Darlington,  and  buried  near  the  church  where  he  had 
had  a  successful  ministry  of  thirteen  years.  While  he 
was  pastor  in  Norfolk  the  Episcopal  minister  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  use  the  pool  of  the  Freemason  Street  Church 
to  baptize  a  candidate.  His  request  was  granted.  Just 
before  the  baptism  was  to  take  place  the  rector  asked 
Mr.  Bealer  if  he  would  not  immerse  the  candidate;  his 
answer  was :  "I  would  suffer  my  right  arm  to  be  removed 
before  I  would  do  such  a  thing." 

Mr.  Bealer  was  twice  married.  His  first  wife  was 
Miss  Bascot.  She  left  one  son.  His  second  wife  was 
Miss  Emily  J.  Winkler,  a  sister  of  Rev.  Dr.  E.  T. 
Winkler.  Of  this  union  there  were  four  children.  The 
two  who  are  living  are  Rev.  Alexander  W.  Bealer  and 
Pierre  Bealer. 


479 


BALLARD  PRESTON  PENNINGTON 

1858-1914 

The  Red  Sulphur  district  of  Monroe  County,  West 
Virginia,  was  the  birthplace  of  Ballard  Preston  Penn- 
ington.  He  was  the  son  of  William  and  Nancy  Shrews- 
bury Pennington,  and  was  born  August  13,  1858.  After 
having  taught  school  for  several  years  he  studied  law 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Soon  after  this,  while 
attending  a  protracted  meeting,  he  was  converted,  and 
the  whole  plan  and  purpose  of  his  life  changed.  He 
united  with  the  Baptists  ("missionary"),  and,  answering 
a  call  that  he  heard,  decided  to  be  a  preacher.  He  was 
ordained,  and  from  that  time  to  the  end  "his  life  became 
a  fountain  of  grace  which  has  flowed  in  an  ever-broaden- 
ing stream,  touching  and  blessing  literally  thousands  of 
his  fellow-beings.  He  had  the  gift  of  oratory,  a  rare 
command  of  language,  and  the  love  of  God  and  man  in 
his  heart.  A  physical  infirmity  which  made  him  a  cripple 
would  have  brought  to  inactivity  a  less  earnest  nature, 
but  he  was  endued  with  dauntless  energy,  and  was  always 
ready  to  go  whithersoever  he  was  needed,  and  where 
he  could  speak  a  good  word  for  Jesus."  He  served  as 
pastor  to  many  churches  in  Monroe  County,  and  probably 
preached  to  more  churches  in  this  county  than  any  other 
preacher  now  living.  Among  the  churches  in  Monroe  of 
which  he  was  pastor  were  Oak  Grove,  at  Gates;  the 
Valley  Church,  near  Zenith ;  Sweet  Springs,  Sinks  Grove, 
and  Broad  Run.  At  these  last  two  churches  he  was 
pastor  at  two  different  periods,  and  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  Twice,  for  two  years  in  1908-09,  and  again,  not 
long  before  his  death,  he  was  pastor  of  the  Princeton 

480 


BALLARD  PRESTON  PENNINGTON      481 

Church,  which  church  is  a  member  of  the  Valley  Asso- 
ciation and  so  of  the  General  Association  of  Virginia. 
From  time  to  time  he  engaged  in  evangelistic  work,  in 
which  work  he  was  very  successful,  in  West  Virginia 
and  other  States.  In  1912  he  was  elected  Mayor  of 
Princeton. 

After  an  illness  of  six  weeks  he  passed  away  Tuesday 
morning,  October  20,  1914.  His  wife,  who  was  before 
her  marriage  Miss  Mary  Elizabeth  White,  and  these 
children  survive  him :  Mr.  S.  R.  Pennington,  Grace, 
Beecher,  Mary,  Virgil,  and  Jewel.  The  funeral,  that 
took  place  at  the  Methodist  Church,  Princeton,  was  con- 
ducted by  the  pastors  of  the  various  churches  of  Prince- 
ton, the  burial  being  in  the  Princeton  Cemetery.  This 
sketch  is  based  on  information  furnished  by  Dr.  Zed  E. 
Bee  and  an  article  in  Monroe  (W-  Va.)  Watchman. 


81 


ISAAC  V.  LUKE 
1787(?)-1879 

At  the  time  of  his  death,  which  took  place  September 
17,  1879,  Rev.  Isaac  V.  Luke  was  the  oldest  Baptist 
minister  in  the  State.  He  had  reached  the  great  age  of 
ninety-two.  He  was  born  in  Nansemond  County.  He 
was  a  Baptist  minister  for  over  fifty  years.  He 
served  through  the  War  of  1812,  and  two  days  before 
his  death  received  his  last  pension.  He  was  called 
"Uncle  Luke,"  and  was  a  great  favorite  with  all  who 
knew  him.  "He  bore  but  few  marks  of  the  decrepitude 
of  age,  and  preserved  wonderful  freshness  in  appear- 
ance, while  his  mental  faculties  were  unimpaired.  His 
was  a  long  and  useful  life.  His  ministerial  career  was 
blessed  to  the  good  of  thousands  of  souls."  He  was 
ordained  from  the  Western  Branch  Church,  Portsmouth 
Association,  the  Association  in  whose  bounds  his  life 
seems  to  have  been  spent.  For  many  years  he  lived  at 
Suffolk.  One  of  the  churches  that  he  served  was 
Bethesda.  His  son,  Rev.  J.  M.  C.  Luke,  as  his  father, 
was  ordained  from  the  Western  Branch  Church,  and  was 
for  a  time  pastor  of  the  Lake  Drummond  and  Deep 
Creek  Churches,  and  later  of  the  Elizabeth  City  (N.  C.) 
Church.  On  September  19,  1879,  a  large  crowd  gathered 
for  the  funeral;  the  service  was  conducted  by  Rev.  Dr. 
O.  F.  Flippo,  who  spoke  from  the  text :  "I  have  waited 
for  thy  salvation,  O  Lord."  Genesis  49:18.  Almost  all 
of  this  sketch  is  taken  from  a  letter  of  Dr.  Flippo,  in  the 
Religious  Herald  for  December  4,  1879. 


482 


THOMAS  TREADWELL  EATON 
1845-1907 

The  Western  Recorder  for  August  12,  1915,  contained 
an  editorial  with  this  heading:  "T.  T.  Eaton."  This 
article  said :  "We  are  now  getting  far  enough  away 
from  the  grave  of  this  giant  of  grace  and  truth  to  form 
an  impartial  estimate  of  his  life  and  character.  That  he 
was  a  very  remarkable  man,  all  admit,  and  that  he  filled 
a  place  all  his  own,  none  will  deny.  ...  In  our  time 
we  have  known  many  great  men  and  ministers,  yet, 
all  in  all,  we  are  disposed  to  regard  T.  T.  Eaton  as  the 
most  versatile  genius  it  has  ever  been  our  good  fortune 
to  know.  ...  He  seemed  to  know  much  about 
many  things,  and  something  about  everything.  .  .  . 
With  him  thought  was  an  instant  conclusion  rather  than 
a  tedious  process."  This  same  number  of  the  Recorder 
contained  an  article  of  his  reprinted,  by  urgent  request, 
from  an  issue  of  1909,  entitled :  "Call  to  Moral  Men." 
The  Recorder  carries  on  its  front  page,  from  week  to 
week,  the  motto  selected  by  Dr.  Eaton,  with  the  Greek 
for  the  first  two  words:  "Contend  earnestly  for  the 
faith  which  was  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints." 

Thomas  Treadwell  Eaton  was  born  at  Murfreesboro, 
Tenn.,  November  16,  1845,  his  parents  being  Dr.  Joseph 
H.  Eaton  and  Esther  M.  Treadwell.  At  this  time  Dr. 
Eaton  was  professor  in  the  College  in  Murfreesboro,  the 
institution  that  in  1847  became  Union  University,  with 
him  as  its  president.  This  Dr.  Eaton,  when  a  child, 
during  a  severe  illness,  was  pronounced  by  the  physicians 
to  be  dead.  The  mother,  however,  despite  all  appear- 
ances and  the  verdict  of  the  doctor,  maintained  that  the 

483 


484         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

child  was  not  dead,  because  he  was  the  child  of  too  many 
prayers  to  die  so  young.  Young  Eaton,  after  attending 
Union  University,  went  to  Madison  University,  Hamil- 
ton, N.  Y.,  where  his  uncle,  George  W.  Eaton,  was 
president.  When  the  Civil  War  broke  out  he  returned 
home  to  enter  the  Confederate  Army.  His  service  as 
a  Confederate  soldier  was  "the  thing  in  his  life  of  which 
he  was  most  proud."  He  was  one  of  Forrest's  men,  and, 
though  only  a  youth,  was  made  a  "headquarter  scout" 
by  Gen.  Stonewall  Jackson.  After  the  War  he  entered 
Washington  College,  now  Washington  and  Lee  Univer- 
sity, being  there  under  General  Lee.  Before  his  gradu- 
ation he  was  tutor,  and  had  been  offered  the  place  of 
assistant  professor;  at  his  graduation  Commencement 
he  took  the  orator's  medal,  and  made  two  of  the  four 
speeches  delivered  by  students.  During  his  college  life 
he  accepted  Christ,  and  was  baptized  by  Rev.  John 
William  Jones. 

From  1867  to  1872  he  was  professor  in  Union  Uni- 
versity, and  his  first  pastorate  was  at  Lebanon,  Tenn. 
From  this  place  he  went  to  take  charge  of  the  First 
Baptist  Church,  Chattanooga.  At  Petersburg,  his  next 
field,  he  remained  some  five  years.  Next  came  his  last 
and  his  longest  pastorate,  namely,  at  Walnut  Street 
Baptist  Church,  Louisville,  Ky.  Here  he  remained  some 
twenty-seven  years.  During  these  years  the  meeting- 
house on  the  corner  of  Walnut  and  Fourth  Streets  was 
sold  and  the  present  meeting-house  on  Third  and  St. 
Catherine  Streets  built.  Before  this  period  Dr.  Eaton 
had  been  editor  of  the  Christian  Herald,  of  Tennessee, 
and  a  contributor  to  the  Religious  Herald  and  other 
religious  papers.  For  a  large  part  of  his  life  he  was 
editor  of  the  Western  Recorder.  Before  the  end  of  his 
life  he  had  written  a  number  of  books,  namely,  "Talks 
to  Children,"  "Talks  on  Getting  Married,"  "Angels," 


THOMAS  TREADWELL  EATON          485 

and  the  "Cruise  of  the  Kaiserin."  He  had  many  popular 
lectures,  two  of  these  lectures  having  these  titles:  "Poor 
Kin,"  "Woman." 

Dr.  Eaton  was  a  man  of  tireless  energy  both  of  mind 
and  of  body.  It  seemed  as  if  his  hunger  for 
knowledge  and  his  love  of  work  would  make  it  im- 
possible and  unnecessary  for  him  to  sleep.  He  used  to 
say  that  he  had  learned  to  be  in  two  places  at  one  time 
and  that  he  had  hopes  of  learning  to  be  in  three  at  the 
same  time.  His  capacity  and  versatility  were  often  im- 
posed on.  He  told  how  in  one  of  his  pastorates  a  member 
sent  for  him  posthaste  all  the  way  across  the  city  on  a 
midsummer  day.  When  he  arrived  at  the  house,  very 
hot  and  out  of  breath,  the  good  woman  said  she  wanted 
him  to  help  her  get  a  cook.  While  he  was  pastor  in 
Louisville  a  countryman  once  shipped  to  him  a  carload 
of  mules,  asking  him  to  sell  them  and  remit  the  money. 
Yet  another  countryman  asked  him  to  look  into  the 
character  of  a  certain  clerk  who  was  asking  for  the  hand 
of  the  farmer's  daughter. 

He  was  a  leader  among  Kentucky  and  Southern 
Baptists,  and  a  debater  of  great  ability.  In  appearance 
he  was  tall,  with  a  head  and  face  in  which  the  marks  of 
intellectual  strength  were  very  clear.  His  face  as  it 
appears  in  the  excellent  steel  engraving,  in  the  Minutes 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  of  1908,  shows  to 
great  advantage  and  with  great  accuracy  his  high  brow, 
his  clear-cut  nose  and  mouth,  his  strong,  bright  eyes.  It 
is  the  face  of  the  thinker,  of  the  man  of  action. 

Suddenly  on  his  way  to  a  Chautauqua,  at  Blue  Moun- 
tain, Miss.,  June  27,  1907,  where  he  was  to  lecture,  he 
was  stricken  with  apoplexy,  at  Grand  Junction,  Tenn., 
and  was  soon  dead.  A  great  crowd  attended  the  funeral 
at  the  Walnut  Street  Church,  Louisville.  There  were 
some  one  hundred  and  fifty  ministers  present.  Addresses 


486         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

were  made  by  Drs.  T.  T.  Martin,  W.  P.  Harvey,  P.  T. 
Hale,  Lansing  Burrows,  and  C.  M.  Thompson.  The 
sermon  was  preached  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Weaver.  His  wife, 
who  before  her  marriage  was  Miss  Alice  Roberts,  died 
some  two  years  after  her  husband.  Their  two  children, 
Joseph  H.  and  Maria  (Mrs.  E.  C.  Farmer),  are  still 
living.  Dr.  Eaton  was  one  of  three  children  who  lived 
to  man's  estate. 


TRAVIS  BUTHY  THAMES 

1854-1914 

While  Dr.  Thames  was  pastor  of  the  First  Baptist 
Church,  of  Danville,  a  Virginia  Baptist  preacher  was 
helping  in  a  protracted  meeting  at  one  of  the  other 
Baptist  churches  of  the  city.  He  was  the  guest  of  Dr, 
Thames  one  Saturday  night  and  for  breakfast  the  next 
morning.  At  this  meal  mushrooms  were  served,  with 
delicious  beefsteak.  The  visitor  expressed  some  surprise 
that  so  rare  and  choice  a  thing  as  mushrooms  could  be 
found  in  the  Danville  market.  Dr.  Thames  answered 
that  he  and  his  wife  got  them  often  on  their  bicycle  rides, 
for  they  were  plentiful  in  the  fields.  While  Dr.  Thames 
was  in  Danville  he  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Book 
Club,  and  was  often  called  on  for  addresses  by  the 
Wednesday  Afternoon  (Literary)  Club,  an  organization 
among  the  women  of  the  city,  and  by  the  Daughters  of 
the  American  Revolution.  One  winter,  probably  when 
he  was  pastor  in  Elizabeth,  he  spoke  every  week  for  the 
public  schools  of  New  York  City.  When  the  Baptist 
General  Association  met  in  Petersburg,  in  1895,  Dr. 
Thames  presented  the  minority  report  of  a  committee 
appointed  a  year  before  to  consider  and  report  on  the 
consolidation  of  the  State  Mission  and  the  Sunday- 
School  Boards.  The  minority  report  favored  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  two  Boards.  Feeling  was  tense.  There 
was  decided  difference  of  opinion.  Dr.  Thames,  through 
all  the  discussion,  was  cool,  good-natured,  patient,  genial, 
calm.  A  difficult  crisis  was  passed.  A  good  judge  who 
was  present  said  that  Dr.  Thames  had  done  much  to  save 
the  situation.  The  following  year,  when  the  Association 
met  with  the  Grace  Street  Church  (in  the  temporary 

487 


488         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

tabernacle  on  West  Grace),  Dr.  Thames  was  the  preacher 
of  the  introductory  sermon,  his  text  being  II  Timothy 
4:7:  "I  have  kept  the  faith."  He  was  a  preacher  of 
unusual  charm  and  power.  His  sermons  were  carefully 
thought  out,  couched  in  choice  language,  and  most  im- 
pressively delivered.  Dr.  W.  R.  L.  Smith  speaks  of  his 
voice  as  "that  soft,  flute-like  voice,"  and  says  that  an 
elocution  teacher  once  said  to  Dr.  Thames:  "Sir,  your 
voice  is  worth  a  fortune."  Dr.  Smith  calls  him  "a 
genuine  orator."  As  a  companion  he  was  genial,  sunny, 
and,  upon  occasion,  full  of  fun  and  humor.  To  quote 
again  from  Dr.  Smith:  "Those  were  fine  qualities  that 
fitted  him  to  win  success  and  popularity  in  each  of  his 
fields,  North  and  South.  He  blessed  every  community 
he  touched.  Nature  and  grace  joined  to  fashion  a  rare, 
gentleman.  He  was  a  social  prince.  The  charm  of  him 
was  an  inheritance  from  a  noble  Alabama  family. 
.  .  .  He  could  be  gracious  without  condescension, 
dignified  without  stiffness,  and  sympathetic  without 
affectation.  .  .  .  Never  dogmatic  or  intolerant  he 
cultivated  large  hospitality  to  all  truth.  In  Christian 
sympathy  he  was  broad,  and  in  all  human  interests  he 
was  generous.  The  center  of  his  soul  was  poised  on 
the  changeless  conviction  that  Christ  is  the  Lord  of  life. 
He  saw  God  in  the  Nazarene,  whom  he  adored  as  the 
divine-human  model  of  moral  and  spiritual  perfection. 
Here  was  the  lodestar  of  his  ministry,  recon- 
ciliation to  the  Father,  and  resemblance  to  the  Son." 

Travis  Buthy  Thames  was  born  at  Claiborne,  Ala., 
August  18,  1854,  his  parents  being  Mary  McCollum  and 
Cornelius  Ellis  Thames.  After  his  college  course  he  was 
at  the  Southern  Baptist  Theological  Seminary,  three 
sessions  and  parts  of  two  others,  in  all  from  1874  to 
1879,  becoming  an  "English  Graduate."  His  several 
pastorates  were:  Shelbyville,  Ky.  (five  years) ;  La  Salle 


TRAVIS  BUTHY  THAMES  489 

Avenue  Church,  Chicago  (five  years)  ;  First  Church, 
Danville,  Va.  (thirteen  years) ;  First  Church,  Elizabeth, 
N.  J.  (eight  years) ;  and  Newnan,  Ga.  (two  years).  He 
passed  away  Wednesday  evening,  February  25,  1914,  at 
Newnan.  During  the  funeral  services  held  in  Newnan, 
which  were  conducted  by  Dr.  J.  S.  Hardaway  (who  was 
assisted  by  Pastor  Edmondson  of  the  Methodist  Church, 
Pastor  Hannah  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  Drs. 
J.  F.  Purser  and  B.  D.  Gray),  the  business  houses  of 
the  city  were  closed,  and  a  great  audience  taxed  the 
capacity  of  the  church.  Saturday  morning,  February 
28th,  services  were  held  in  the  Danville  Baptist  Church, 
conducted  by  the  pastor,  Dr.  J.  E.  Hicks,  and  Dr. 
W.  R.  L.  Smith.  The  burial  took  place  in  Green  Hill, 
Danville's  city  of  the  dead.  Dr.  Thames's  wife,  who 
was,  before  her  marriage  (which  occurred  December  23, 
1880),  Miss  Sallie  Long,  survives  him,  and  these 
children:  Mamie  Lyon  (Mrs.  R.  R.  Patterson),  John 
Long  Thames,  Sarah  Curd  Thames;  one  daughter, 
Lydia  Long  Thames,  is  dead. 


EDWARD  KINGSFORD 

1788(?)-1859 

It  is  supposed  that  the  American  city  of  Boston  re- 
ceived its  name  through  compliment  to  Mr.  Isaac 
Johnson,  "one  of  the  foremost  in  the  enterprise"  of  the 
establishment  of  the  town ;  he  was  from  Boston,  in 
Lincolnshire,  England.  This  English  town  was  the  birth- 
place of  Edward  Kingsford.  He  first  saw  the  light, 
probably  in  1788.  While  an  officer  in  Hindustan,  in  the 
employ  of  the  East  India  Company,  he  was  converted. 
He  resigned  his  commission  and  gave  himself  at  once  to 
the  work  of  the  ministry.  Once  in  his  earlier  ministry 
he  was  at  a  conference  of  the  Baptist  ministers  of 
London.  They  met  in  a  large  room  in  a  tavern.  Down 
the  center  of  the  room  there  was  a  table  and  along  the 
middle  of  the  table  a  row  of  candles.  "At  each  side  of 
the  table  were  seats  for  the  ministers,  and  in  front  of 
each  seat  there  was  a  glass  of  grog.  Each  preacher 
held  a  pipe  in  his  hand,  and  alternately  sipped  his  grog 
and  puffed  at  his  pipe."  Years  afterwards  when  Dr. 
Kingsford  described  the  scene  he  said  that  "as  he  stood 
at  the  door  and  looked  down  this  room,  ...  it 
looked  more  like  the  mouth  of  hell  than  any  place  he 
had  ever  seen."  This  scene  may  have  had  something 
to  do  with  the  strong  aversion  that  later  in  life  he  is 
known  to  have  had  towards  the  use  of  strong  drink  and 
tobacco.  Once  at  the  Rappahannock  Association  the 
report  on  temperance  described  liquor  dealers  as  "doing 
the  work  of  the  devil."  Rev.  Thomas  B.  Evans  objected 
to  the  language  since  it  cast  an  aspersion  on  some 
respectable  men  who  were  engaged  in  the  traffic.  Dr. 
Kingsford  arose  and  said  that  he  "fully  agreed  with 

490 


EDWARD  KINGSFORD  491 

Brother  Evans  that  the  language  of  the  report  was  un- 
justifiable." Here  he  paused,  and  then  added,  "with  a 
sardonic  smile  and  great  emphasis :  4It  is  a  slander  on 
the  Devil!  No  respectable  devil  would  be  caught  in  a 
grog  shop !' ' 

When  pastor  of  Grace  Street,  Richmond,  Dr.  Kings- 
ford  succeeded,  "in  a  large  measure,  in  making  his  church 
a  total  abstinence  body."  Dr.  Jeter  was  less  extreme  in 
his  temperance  views,  and  the  result,  in  his  pastorate  at 
Grace  Street,  was  that  a  number  withdrew  from  the 
church  and  organized  what  was  known  as  a  "test 
church."  "He  and  Dr.  Kings  ford  had  a  sharp  news- 
paper controversy  on  the  ecclesiastical  aspects  of  the  tem- 
perance question." 

From  May  1,  1834,  to  February  1,  1836,  Dr.  Kings- 
ford  was  pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  (now  the 
Tabernacle  Church),  of  Utica,  N.  Y.  During  this 
pastorate  forty- four  members  were  received  by  letter  and 
twenty-three  by  baptism. 

Dr.  Kings  ford  began  his  pastorate  in  Harrisburg,  in 
November,  1837,  and  offered  his  resignation  December 
31,  1839.  This  was  a  stormy  pastorate  and  closed  by 
Dr.  Kingsford's  dissolving  the  church,  because  he  felt 
that  the  debt,  the  lack  of  male  members,  and  the  attitude 
of  the  members  towards  each  other  and  towards  him 
rendered  it  "impossible  to  maintain  a  scriptural  visibility." 
These  are  the  facts  as  they  appear  on  the  church  record, 
though  it  may  be  that  the  account  is  a  prejudiced  one. 

He  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Alex- 
andria, June  1,  1841.  At  this  time  there  were 
probably  less  than  one  hundred  white  Baptists  in 
Alexandria,  and  "these  were  almost  entirely  of  the 
plainest  and  poorest  people.  Worse  than  that  they  had 
quarreled  on  the  subject  of  missions  and  separated  into 
two  parties."  Both  sides  claimed  the  meeting-house. 


492         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

While  the  matter  was  in  the  courts  the  anti-mission 
party  used  a  ladder  and  got  in  through  the  galleries  and 
held  their  meetings.  The  church  was  finally  given  to 
the  other  party,  that  during  the  law  process  had  wor- 
shiped in  the  Lyceum,  Dr.  Kings  ford  conducting  the 
services.  The  people  of  the  town  were  greatly  prejudiced 
against  the  Baptists,  and  Dr.  Kings  ford  came  in  for  his 
share  of  censure,  but  he  held  his  ground.  "Once  he  set 
the  whole  town  in  a  state  of  excitement  by  preaching  a 
sermon  on  the  subject  of  baptism.  .  .  .  The  large, 
old-fashioned  pulpit  was  filled  almost"  with  the  works 
of  Pedo-baptist  authors  from  whom  he  quoted.  Dr. 
Kings  ford  certainly  had  "a  difficult  task."  Indeed,  he 
once  declared  that  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  encourage- 
ment his  blind  "preachers"  gave  him  he  would  have 
resigned  long  before  he  did.  A  certain  Sunday  after- 
noon a  young  lady  was  baptized  in  the  Potomac  River, 
and  the  following  Saturday  afternoon  her  pastor,  Dr. 
Kings  ford,  came  and  asked  her  to  visit  with  him  his 
"preachers,"  from  whom  he  said  he  drew  inspiration  for 
his  work  on  Sunday.  Imagine  her  surprise  when  she 
found  these  "preachers"  to  be  blind  colored  women  over 
one  hundred  years  old.  Their  "testimony  freely  given, 
left  no  room  for  doubt,  .  .  .  and  it  was  evident  that 
God's  Holy  Spirit  had  dispelled  nature's  darkness  from 
their  minds."  One  of  these  "preachers"  besides  being 
blind  was  totally  helpless.  The  Dorcas  Society  of  the 
church,  that  "without  officers  or  parliamentary  rules" 
made  "comforts,  flannel  undergarments,  linsey-woolsey 
gowns,  hoods,  cloaks,  and  so  on,"  for  all  the  needy  mem- 
bers, provided  a  colored  woman  to  stay  with  this  aged 
and  helpless  one.  But  once,  when  a  great  snowstorm 
prevented  travel  for  several  days,  the  watcher  forsook 
her  charge,  and  when  Mrs.  Daniel  Cawood  reached  the 
house,  she  found  poor  Aunt  Mary  sitting  in  her  chair, 
where  she  had  spent  the  long  and  lonesome  hours. 


EDWARD  KINGSFORD  493 

On  September  21,  1845,  Dr.  Kings  ford  resigned  the 
care  of  the  Alexandria  church.  His  next  charge  was 
the  Fourth  Church,  Richmond.  Here  he  succeeded 
Rev.  A.  B.  Smith.  In  1849  he  became  pastor  of 
Grace  Street  Baptist  Church,  his  predecessor  being  Dr. 
David  Shaver.  Upon  his  resignation,  in  the  spring  of 
1852,  Dr.  J.  B.  Jeter  became  pastor  of  the  church.  Of 
Dr.  Kingsford  and  his  Grace  Street  pastorate  Dr. 
Hatcher  says:  "He  was  an  Englishman  of  generous 
culture  and  high  Christian  character.  He  was  also 
an  able  preacher,  .  .  .  rigid  and  severe  in  his 
methods.  He  had  the  eye  of  a  critic,  and  against 
that  which  seemed  wrong  in  his  sight  he  was  never  slow 
to  utter  his  censure.  With  his  exacting  and  imperious 
spirit  it  was  not  easy  to  maintain  harmony  with  an  in- 
stitution so  intensely  democratic  as  an  American  Baptist 
Church.  .  .  .  It  is  creditable  to  Dr.  Kingsford  that 
when  he  ascertained  that  Dr.  Jeter  was  to  be  his  suc- 
cessor, he  worked  with  great  diligence  to  cleanse  the 
church  of  certain  disorders  which  then  existed.  In  this 
unselfish  undertaking  he  was  eminently  successful. 
Dr.  Kingsford  was  a  man  of  peculiar  mould, 
.  .  .  but  he  was  a  man  of  lofty  Christian  principle 
and  not  really  capable  of  an  ignoble  act."  During  his 
pastorate  at  Grace  Street,  Dr.  Kingsford  seems  to  have 
made  a  trip  to  Europe,  and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that 
at  this  early  period  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  had 
thought  of  Southern  Europe  as  a  mission  field.  On 
October  6,  1850,  the  Board  resolved  to  adopt  France  as 
a  field  of  missionary  labor,  and  Dr.  Kingsford,  who  was 
about  to  visit  that  country,  was  "requested  to  make  such 
inquiries  ...  as  would  afford  necessary  informa- 
tion to  the  Board." 

"One    morning    Richmond    blossomed    out    with    big 
theater  posters,  prepared  by  him,  representing  the  drama 


494         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

of  the  judgment  day."  Dr.  Kingsford,  although  severe, 
had  a  generous  nature  and  a  warm,  sympathetic  heart. 
A  lady  in  Richmond,  deeply  afflicted  by  the  death  of  an 
almost  idolized  child,  was  greatly  comforted  by  his  tender 
sympathy,  and  "amazed  at  the  unquestioning  confidence 
with  which  he  spoke  of  leading  her  child  by  the  hand 
through  the  streets  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  when  he 
should  himself  enter  the  gates  of  the  Golden  City." 

From  Richmond  Dr.  Kings  ford  again  made  Alex- 
andria his  home,  and  he  and  his  wife  were  received  back 
to  the  fellowship  of  the  Alexandria  church,  on  a  letter 
from  Grace  Street,  September  2,  1852.  On  March  23, 
1853,  however,  they  were  granted  a  letter  to  unite  with 
the  Back  Lick.  It  seems  that  of  this  church,  located  in 
Fairfax  County  and  belonging  to  the  Columbia  Asso- 
ciation, Dr.  Kings  ford  now  became  pastor,  though  he 
still  resided  in  Alexandria.  At  the  organization  of  the 
Potomac  Association,  in  1856,  Dr.  Kings  ford  preached 
the  introductory  sermon  from  the  text  Philippians  1 :  27, 
was  on  the  committee  to  draft  the  Constitution  and  Rules 
of  Decorum  for  the  body,  and  was  president  of  the  "Act- 
ing Board."  In  1857  and  1858,  when  his  home  was  in 
Washington,  he  was  moderator  of  this  Association. 
During  all  his  years  among  Virginia  Baptists  he  was 
distinctly  a  leader.  At  the  annual  meetings  of  the  "Gen- 
eral Association"  he  was  on  important  committees,  and 
took  active  part  in  the  deliberations.  As  early  as  1846, 
when  the  Education  Society  report  came  up,  he  suggested 
that  the  debt  reported  "presented  an  obstacle  to  his  speak- 
ing." A  collection  was  taken  amounting  to  $200,  and 
then  he  went  on  with  his  address.  In  1855  he  was  one 
of  those  who  made  a  pledge  when  the  Education  Board 
needed  $1,000  to  sustain  their  beneficiaries.  In  1856  he 
offered  a  resolution  providing  that  the  return  certificates 
required  by  the  railroads  be  printed  under  the  direction 


EDWARD  KINGSFORD  495 

of  the  Secretary  of  the  Association,  and  that  there  be 
for  each  a  charge  of  six  cents,  and  that  any  balance  after 
paying  for  the  printing  be  given  to  the  Sunday-school 
library  of  the  church  (Lynchburg)  entertaining  the  As- 
sociation. Of  Dr.  Kingsford  Dr.  Andrew  Broaddus 
says:  "As  a  speaker  both  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  plat- 
form, his  manner  was  impressive.  His  gesture  was  be- 
coming but  not  abundant,  and  his  voice  was  strong  and 
distinct,  but  without  the  slightest  touch  of  pathos  or 
tenderness.  ...  He  excelled  especially  as  a  reader 
of  the  Scriptures.  I  once  heard  him  read  a  chapter  so 
impressively  that,  amid  the  death-like  stillness  of  the 
congregation,  a  woman  burst  out  into  a  scream." 

In  appearance  Dr.  Kingsford  was  a  typical  English- 
man, being  "burly,  red  faced,  clean  shaven."  Dr. 
Broaddus  thus  describes  him :  "In  person  Dr.  Kingsford 
was  large  and  portly,  and  in  stature  slightly  above 
medium  height.  Dressed  with  faultless  taste — a  large 
white  cravat,  without  a  collar,  about  his  neck,  with  a 
florid  skin,  a  large  mouth,  a  substantial  nose,  intelligent, 
but  rather  severe  blue  eyes,  a  well-shaped  head  sur- 
rounded by  a  brown  wig,  and  a  military  bearing, 
Dr.  Kingford's  personal  presence  was  striking  and 
imposing." 

During  his  residence  in  Alexandria  and  also  in  Rich- 
mond Mrs.  Kingsford  conducted  a  school  for  young 
women  that,  because  of  its  remarkable  excellence,  com- 
manded the  patronage  of  the  very  best  people  of  these 
communities.  Mrs.  Kingsford  was  a  woman  of  strong 
character,  and  of  great  intelligence  and  unusual  culture. 
She  controlled  the  school  herself,  allowing  her  husband 
no  function  in  its  workings  save  to  lead  the  devotions, 
and  "to  criticize  in  a  pleasant  way  the  language  of  the 
young  ladies."  There  were  in  the  school  (in  Richmond) 
some  forty  boarders  and  some  sixty  day  pupils.  The 


496         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

school  occupied  a  large  mansion  that  had  been  the  home 
of  one  of  the  first  families  of  the  city.  Before  moving 
into  this  house  Mrs.  Kingsford  "paid  the  sum  of  $80.00 
to  have  it  thoroughly  scoured  and  cleansed  from  cellar  to 
attic."  Every  morning  at  an  early  hour  she  was  up  and 
about,  to  see  that  the  servants  and  teachers  were  all  in 
their  places.  She  went  to  market  herself,  taking  with 
her  several  of  the  girls,  that  by  actual  experience  they 
might  learn  how  to  lay  in  provisions  for  a  large 
household. 

In  1850  the  Missionary  Sewing  Society  of  Grace 
Street  Church,  by  a  contribution  of  $176.15,  made  Mrs. 
Kingsford  and  two  other  ladies  life  members  of  the 
Virginia  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society. 

It  seems  that  Dr.  Kingford's  last  years  were  spent  in 
Washington  City.  Here,  on  Wednesday,  July  27,  1859, 
he  passed  away  in  his  seventy-first  year.  The  next  day, 
at  the  Tenth  Street  Church,  Drs.  Isaac  Cole,  S.  P.  Hill, 
and  G.  W.  Samson,  took  part  in  the  funeral  services. 
The  funeral  procession  was  one  of  the  largest  ever  seen 
up  to  that  day  in  the  city.  Mrs.  Kingsford  survived  her 
husband  and  lived  to  quite  an  advanced  age. 


.      J.  C.  CARPENTER 

1834-1897 

Rev.  Emmett  J.  Mason,  Jr.,  presented  to  the  Augusta 
Association,  in  1897,  an  obituary  of  Rev.  J.  C.  Carpen- 
ter, whose  funeral  sermon  he  preached  at  the  Natural 
Bridge  Baptist  Church,  Virginia.  All  of  the  facts  of 
this  sketch  are  taken  from  this  obituary.  Brother 
Carpenter  was  born  in  Spottsylvania  County,  Virginia, 
October  12,  1834;  he  died  August  10,  1897,  from 
typhoid  fever.  He  was  converted  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
and  baptized  into  the  fellowship  of  the  County  Line 
Church.  He  was  educated  at  Greenville,  Richmond 
College,  and  Washington  and  Lee  University.  During 
the  War  he  served  as  chaplain  to  Federal  prisoners  in 
Castle  Thunder  and  Libby  Prison,  Richmond.  He  was 
in  the  Bible  and  colportage  work  for  thirty-five  years. 
In  1875  he  was  ordained  and  served  in  Spottsylvania, 
Rockbridge,  and  Franklin  Counties,  Virginia,  and  in 
Greenbrier,  Monroe,  Summers,  Fayette,  and  Mason 
Counties,  West  Virginia. 


497 


DAVID  SHAVER 
1820-1902 

Abingdon,  an  attractive  town  in  the  fair  Washington 
County,  Virginia,  was  the  birthplace  of  David  Shaver. 
He  first  saw  the  light  on  November  22,  1820.  His 
parents  were  Presbyterians,  and  at  the  early  age  of  seven 
he  made  a  profession  of  his  faith  in  Christ.  Since  he 
was  so  young,  he  was  not  allowed  to  unite  with  the 
church.  Not  until  he  was  sixteen  did  he  take  this  step, 
and  then  he  made  the  Methodist  Protestant  Church  his 
choice.  He  decided  to  preach,  and  before  he  was  twenty 
entered  the  itinerant  ministry  of  the  Virginia  Conference. 
Under  one  of  his  sermons  Miss  L.  C.  Nowlin,  of  Lynch- 
burg,  was  converted,  and  then,  in  1843,  became  his  wife. 
(Of  this  union  ten  children  were  born.)  When  con- 
vinced that  he  had  entered  the  ministry  without  adequate 
equipment,  he  suspended  his  active  labors  and  spent  three 
years  in  "diligent  preparation  for  pulpit  service."  As  a 
child  he  had  never  heard  a  Baptist  minister  preach,  but 
when,  in  his  pastorate  of  the  Methodist  Protestant 
Church,  in  Lynchburg,  he  was  called  on  to  sprinkle  a 
dying  infant,  he  was  led  to  study  the  whole  matter  of 
baptism.  He  found  that  his  argument  that  the  Baptists 
were  wrong,  because  they  were  at  one  extreme  (the 
Catholics  being  at  the  other),  was  false.  He  became  a 
Baptist,  being  baptized  in  1844.  Upon  the  occasion  of 
his  baptism  he  preached,  presenting  his  reasons  for  this 
step.  This  sermon  led  a  young  man  of  Episcopal 
tendencies  to  become  a  Baptist;  this  was  C.  C.  Chaplin, 
afterwards  well  known  as  a  Baptist  minister.  After  his 
ordination  Mr.  Shaver  became  pastor  of  the  Baptist 
Church  right  across  the  street  from  the  flock  (Methodist) 

498 


DAVID  SHAVER  499 

he  gave  up.  After  a  brief  season  in  Lynchburg  he  ac- 
cepted, in  October,  1846,  the  pastorate  of  the  Grace 
Street  Baptist  Church,  Richmond.  In  two  years,  by 
reason  of  trouble  with  his  throat,  he  resigned  at  Grace 
Street  to  take  up  agency  work  for  the  Domestic  Mission 
Board.  In  1853  he  came  back  into  the  active  ministry, 
taking  charge  of  the  church  at  Hampton,  Va.  About 
the  end  of  1856  he  gave  up  the  work  at  Hampton  and 
became  editor  of  the  Religions  Herald.  The  front  page 
of  the  Herald  now  bore  this  statement:  "By  Sands, 
Shaver  &  Co.,"  and  the  issue  of  March  17,  1859,  this 
direction:  "Office,  corner  of  Main  and  10th  Sts.,  above 
Post-office."  He  continued  with  the  Herald  until  its 
outfit  was  burned  at  the  surrender  of  Richmond  in  1865. 
After  the  paper  was  reestablished  by  Jeter  and  Dickin- 
son, he  was  Associate  Editor  until  1867,  when  he  moved 
to  Atlanta  and  became  Editor  of  the  Christian  Index. 
After  closing  his  work  with  the  Index,  in  1874,  and  after 
living  for  a  season  at  Conyers,  Ga.,  Dr.  Shaver  was  in 
charge  of  the  Third  Church,  in  Augusta,  and  then, 
in  1878,  became  instructor  in  the  Theological  Seminary 
(of  the  Home  Mission  Society)  for  colored  young  men. 
This  institution  was  located,  first  in  Augusta,  and  then 
in  Atlanta.  When  Dr.  Shaver  reached  middle  life  his 
countenance  wore  "the  pale  cast  of  thought"  and  sug- 
gested the  student.  While  all  through  life  he  seems  to 
have  had  the  handicap  of  frail  health,  nevertheless  he 
lived  to  the  good  age  of  over  four  score  years.  His  last 
days  he  spent  in  the  home  of  his  son  in  Augusta.  Of 
this  period  of  his  life,  Dr.  Lansing  Burrows,  who  was 
his  pastor,  says :  "He  was  in  his  last  days  an  invaluable 
adviser  and  friend  of  the  brethren.  .  .  .  His  weekly 
meeting  with  the  pastors  in  Augusta  was  of  untold  bless- 
ing to  them."  He  passed  away  at  the  home  of  his  son 
January  13,  1902. 


THOMAS  CORBIN  BRAXTON 

Thomas  Corbin  Braxton  was  born  at  "Mantua,"  King 
William  County,  the  home  of  his  parents,  Carter  Braxton 
and  his  wife,  Sarah  Moore.  He  was  a  grandson  of  Carter 
Braxton,  "The  Signer"  (of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence). He  was  descended  in  the  third  generation  from 
Robert  Carter  ("King  Carter")  and  Elizabeth  Landon, 
from  whose  loins  have  sprung  probably  more  names  emi- 
nent in  Virginia  history  than  from  any  other  couple.  In 
early  life  he  removed  to  Richmond  County,  and,  having 
been  ordained  to  the  Baptist  ministry,  assumed  the  care  of 
Farnham  Church,  which  he  joined  by  letter  on  March 
8,  1828.  His  labors  in  the  vicinity  of  this  church  and 
Royal  Oak,  five  miles  distant,  were  greatly  blessed,  and 
at  the  latter  place  a  church  was  established  in  1832,  and 
named  Jerusalem.  He  became  pastor  of  this  body,  upon 
its  organization,  and  served  them  nearly  ten  years.  For 
one  year  he  was  pastor  of  Rappahannock  Church,  near 
the  close  of  his  ministry.  He  was  one  of  the  presbytery 
who  ordained  Rev.  John  Pullen,  May  7,  1843.  He  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  Baptist  churches  in  the  Northern 
Neck.  A  picture  of  Mr.  Braxton  indicates  that  he  had 
dark  blue  eyes,  dark  brown  hair,  rather  a  thin  nose,  and 
a  large  mouth,  and  that  while  he  was  very  good  looking, 
his  expression  was  very  stern.  He  married  Miss  Maria 
Davis  and  his  children  were  Thomas,  John,  and  Lucy. 
The  son  John  became  prominent  in  political  circle  at  the 
close  of  the  Civil  War,  and  served  efficiently  in  the  Legis- 
lature from  Richmond  and  Lancaster  Counties. 

On  December  29,  1841  he  was  elected  pastor  of  the 
Fredericksburg  (Va.)  Church,  where  he  served  until 
January  2,  1843,  when  he  declined  the  call  again  ex-- 
tended to  him  (those  were  the  days  of  "annual"  calls), 
expressing  a  desire  to  be  a  traveling  missionary. 

500 


JAMES  LANCASTER  GWALTNEY 

1799-1864 

James  Lancaster  Gwaltney  was  born  in  Isle  of  Wight 
County,  Virginia,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mill  Swamp 
Church,  November  28,  1799.  Dr.  Beale,  in  his 
"Semple's  History  of  Baptists  of  Virginia,"  says  that  he 
entered  the  ministry  from  the  Black  Creek  Church, 
Southampton  County.  In  1832  and  1833  he  was  pastor 
of  this  church,  and  later  of  the  Suffolk  Church,  and  still 
later  of  the  Cumberland  Street  Church,  Norfolk.  In 
1835  we  find  him  working  as  a  missionary  of  the  Ports- 
mouth Association.  He  was  an  impressive  preacher  and 
many  men  of  influence  professed  religion  under  his 
preaching.  At  Newville,  Sussex  County,  the  people 
cleared  a  piece  of  ground,  prepared  logs  for  seats,  and 
he  held  a  meeting,  the  result  of  which  was  the  organiza- 
tion of  a  church  with  twelve  members.  He  became  its 
pastor,  and  later  a  meeting-house  was  built.  Many  years 
after,  when  he  was  a  second  time  pastor  of  Newville, 
another  meeting-house  was  built.  For  several  brief 
seasons  he  was  pastor  of  Antioch  Church,  which  was 
originally  known  as  "the  Baptist  Church  on  Raccoon 
Swamp,  Sussex  County."  In  1852  he  moved  to  Bote- 
tourt  Springs,  and  became  pastor  of  Big  Lick  Church. 
His  purpose  in  this  move  to  the  west  was  mainly  that 
his  daughters  might  attend  Hollins  Institute  (now 
Hollins  College).  His  work  in  this  neighborhood  helped 
towards  the  organization  of  the  Enon  Church,  which 
took  place  January  27,  1855.  He  was  a  skilled  mechanic, 
as  well  as  a  preacher,  and,  aided  by  his  son  and  by  a  little 
boy  named  George  Elter  (whom  he  paid  nine  pence 
a  day  to  carry  shingles  and  so  on),  he  built  the  Enon 
Meeting-House  that  still  stands,  an  evidence  of  his 

501 


502         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

ability  and  faithfulness.  He  was  pastor  of  Enon  from 
its  organization  until  the  summer  of  1856,  when  he  re- 
turned to  his  former  charge,  Newville,  in  Sussex.  In 
1863  he  resigned  at  Newville,  and  on  May  23,  1864,  at 
Littleton,  Sussex  County,  he  passed  away.  He  was 
buried  at  Spring  Hill,  near  Homeville,  Sussex  County, 
but  subsequently  the  body  was  moved  to  Elmwood 
Cemetery,  Norfolk.  He  was  married  twice.  His  first 
wife  was  Miss  Holleman,  of  Isle  of  Wight  County.  Of 
this  marriage  there  were  these  children:  John  Ryland 
Gwaltney,  Almarine  Gwaltney,  Wm.  H.  Gwaltney,  Mrs. 
Almeda  Wyatt,  and  Mrs.  Ann  Elizabeth  Mildred 
Marable.  His  second  wife  was  Martha  Brundell.  The 
children  of  the  second  marriage  were  Robert,  Mary, 
Mattie,  and  Junius  Kincaid.  Through  the  kind  help  of 
Rev.  J.  R.  Daniel  many  of  the  facts  for  this  sketch  have 
been  secured. 


NATHAN  HEALY 
1804-1845 

Nathan  Healy,  the  youngest  son  of  Rev.  James  Healy 
and  his  wife,  Ruth,  was  born  in  Middlesex  County, 
November  22,  1804.  On  May  12,  1822,  he  was  married 
to  Miss  Mary  Ann  Bristow,  daughter  of  Leonard  and 
Lucy  Bristow,  of  Middlesex.  At  the  call  of  Clark's 
Neck  Church  he  was  ordained  the  third  Sunday  in 
March,  1828,  Elders  Richard  Claybrook  and  George 
Nathan  forming  the  presbytery.  In  1832  he  began  to 
preach  in  a  destitute  part  of  Northumberland  County. 
In  1833  he  removed  to  a  home  called  "Mulberry  Grove," 
Northumberland  County,  and  while  living  there  was  in- 
strumental in  the  formation  of  Gibeon  Church,  which  he 
served  as  pastor  until  his  death,  August  3,  1845.  About 
1844  he  removed  to  Westmoreland  County  and  located 
in  the  vicinity  of  Nomini  Church,  of  which  he  had  al- 
ready become  pastor.  He  was  among  the  founders  of 
Baptist  churches  in  the  Northern  Neck.  One  of  his  sons 
remained  in  Westmoreland  County,  the  others  moved  to 
Baltimore.  His  children  and  grandchildren  have  re- 
flected credit  on  his  name.  The  facts  for  this  sketch  are 
furnished  by  Dr.  G.  W.  Beale. 


503 


HENRY  KEELING 
1795-1870 

Rev.  Henry  Keeling,  Sr.,  was  born  in  Princess  Anne 
County,  Virginia,  in  1770.  He  was  ordained  in  1803, 
and  served  these  churches:  Back  Bay,  London  Bridge, 
Black  Water,  and  one  church  in  North  Carolina.  He 
died  at  London  Bridge  in  July,  1820.  The  subject  of 
this  sketch,  also  named  Henry,  the  second  of  Mr.  Keel- 
ing's  fifteen  children,  was  born  in  "Norfolk  Borough," 
December  26,  1795.  His  early  opportunities  were 
limited,  but  he  made  the  best  use  of  such  educational 
advantages  as  he  had.  At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  a 
clerk  in  a  grocery  store,  and  later  in  other  mercantile 
establishments.  He  was  converted  in  1816,  licensed  to 
preach  December  12,  1817,  and  ordained  May  10,  1818. 
At  his  ordination  the  sermon  was  preached  by  Rev. 
Samuel  Cornelius,  and  the  charge  delivered  by  Rev. 
Adoniram  Judson,  Sr.  (father  of  the  missionary). 
Upon  advice  of  Luther  Rice  the  young  man  went,  in 
September,  1818,  to  Philadelphia  to  study  in  the  Theo- 
logical Institution  just  opened,  the  first  school  for  such 
instruction  among  Baptists  in  this  country.  His  certifi- 
cate, dated  Philadelphia,  July  25,  1821,  and  signed  by 
Wm.  Staughton  and  Ira  Chase,  read  thus :  "This  certifies 
that  Henry  Keeling  has  been  a  member  of  the  Theo- 
logical Institution  of  the  Baptist  General  Convention 
for  three  years;  has  statedly  attended  to  the  public  and 
private  exercises  prescribed  in  the  Institution,  and  has 
sustained  a  Christian  character.  Having  finished  his 
regular  course,  he  is  now  honorably  dismissed."  During 
these  three  years,  having  frequently  preached  for  the 

504 


HENRY  KEELING  505 

Roxborough  Church,  near  Philadelphia,  he  now  became 
pastor  of  this  flock.  After  about  a  year,  he  went  to 
Richmond,  Va.,  where,  at  the  First  Baptist  Church,  he 
became  nominally  the  assistant  of  Rev.  John  Courtney, 
"but  really  the  sole  pastor  of  the  church."  This  relation 
continued  three  years.  Rev.  David  Roper  died  February 
28,  1827,  and  by  his  request  an  address  was  made  at  the 
funeral  by  Rev.  Henry  Keeling.  When  Rev.  J.  L. 
Shuck  and  Miss  Henrietta  Hall  were  married,  on  the 
eve  of  their  departure  for  China,  the  ceremony  was  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Keeling.  For  some  years  Mr.  Keeling 
had  a  school  for  girls  in  Richmond,  and  he  was  at  one 
time  the  teacher  of  William  Carey  Crane,  afterwards  a 
distinguished  preacher  and  educator.  The  first  pastor  of 
the  Grace  Street  Baptist  Church,  Richmond,  that  was 
originally  the  Third  Church,  and  that  had  its  earliest 
house  of  worship  on  the  corner  of  Marshall  and  Second 
Streets,  was  Mr.  Keeling.  It  seems  that  he  "never 
became  very  thoroughly  identified  with  the  church.  He 
owned  and  occupied  a  handsome  brick  residence  in  the 
lower  part  of  the  city,  and  becoming  convinced  that  his 
people  were  careless  as  to  his  support,  because  of  the 
imposing  domicile  in  which  he  dwelt,  he  addressed  them 
a  caustic  letter,  in  which  he  reminded  them  that  'he 
could  not  live  on  bricks  and  mortar.'  .  .  .  Possibly 
the  church  felt  willing,  after  that  letter,  for  him  to  try 
the  experiment  of  subsisting  on  those  innutritious  sub- 
stances, for  it  was  not  long  before  their  connection  was 
dissolved." 

The  story  of  how  Virginia  Baptists  came  to  have  a 
denominational  paper  is  an  interesting  one.  On  Septem- 
ber 25,  1826,  Mr.  William  Crane  wrote  to  a  friend  from 
Richmond:  "I  send  accompanying  this  three  copies  of 
the  first  number  of  the  Richmond  Evangelical  Enquirer, 
by  Brother  Keeling.  ...  I  don't  think  the  first 


506         VIRGINIA  BAPTIST  MINISTERS 

number  a  very  interesting  one,  but  hope  Brother  Keeling 
will  make  a  good  editor  when  he  gets  a  little  further  into 
it."  In  December  of  the  same  year  Mr.  Crane  arranged 
for  Mr.  William  Sands  to  come  to  Richmond  to  begin  the 
publication  of  a  Baptist  paper.  Mr.  Crane  assumed  the 
bill  of  $677  for  press,  type,  and  so  on,  bought  from 
Fielding  Lucas,  and  on  January  11,  1828,  the  first  num- 
ber of  the  Religious  Herald  appeared,  Mr.  Keeling  being 
the  editor.  After  about  two  years  Rev.  Eli  Ball  suc- 
ceeded him  as  the  editor  of  the  Herald.  In  1842  Mr. 
Keeling  established  the  Baptist  Preacher,  a  monthly 
periodical  that  contained  sermons  by  leading  Baptist 
ministers.  From  time  to  time  it  was  Mr.  Keeling's  habit 
to  add  at  the  end  of  the  Preacher  an  editorial  note.  In 
1856  he  alluded  to  a  sermon  by  Rev.  J.  H.  Luther  in  the 
Preacher,  on  Divine  Sympathy,  as  having  been  "balm  to 
our  distressed  heart,"  having  "found  us  and  those  whom 
we  love  most  on  earth  in  deep  affliction."  What  this 
affliction  was  is  not  known.  Mr.  Keeling  was  useful 
along  many  lines.  In  1835,  when  Richmond  was  having 
trouble  from  hot  abolitionists,  called  "Incendiaries,"  a 
pile  of  the  pamphlets  that  were  being  sent  to  the  slaves, 
urging  them  to  desperate  deeds,  were  publicly  burned  in 
front  of  the  post-office,  and  the  Protestant  clergymen  of 
the  city  met  and  passed  resolutions  condemning  this  inter- 
ference by  the  abolitionists ;  among  those  present  at  this 
meeting  was  Henry  Keeling.  He  devoted  much  of  his 
time  to  the  instruction  of  the  colored  youth  of  the  city. 
He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  Virginia  Baptist 
Education  Society,  and  for  some  time  its  corresponding 
secretary.  He  was  also  one  of  the  trustees  of  Richmond 
College  in  1840,  the  year  that  it  was  incorporated.  As 
to  Mr.  Keeling's  preaching,  Dr.  J.  L.  Burrows  said:  "He 
was  never  a  popular  preacher,  but  his  sermons  were 
characterized  by  good  taste,  evident  study,  and  purity  of 


HENRY  KEELING  507 

doctrine.  Many  preachers  are  more  effective  whose  ser- 
mons have  less  intrinsic  merit."  One  who,  as  a  little  boy, 
knew  Mr.  Keeling  says  that  "he  wore  an  enormous  white 
beard  and  reminded  me  of  pictures  of  Moses  in  the  old 
family  Bible."  The  Religious  Herald  for  Thursday, 
November  24,  1870,  says:  "Rev.  Henry  Keeling,  of  this 
city,  died  on  Saturday  last  in  the  seventy-first  year  of 
his  age." 


INDEX 

PAGE 

ABRAHAM,  WYCLIFFE  YANCEY 87-88 

Acree,  R.  R 249 

Adams,  George  D _  ....  410 

Adams,  J.  Q '.""""".™1""""""'""""II"I"  205 

Aiken,  William  _ _ 61 

Alabama  Central  Female  College 81 

Alderman,  Edwin  Anderson 53 

Alleghany  College  192 

Allen,   L.   W _ _  421 

Alexander,  James  Waddel 43 

Alexander,  Joseph  Addison _ 43 

Anderson,    Christopher    406 

Anderson,   Major    _ 26 

Asheville  Baptist,  The _ _ 390 

Ashburn,  A.   H _ '.Z"I'""    50 

Atlantic  Baptist,  The 390 

Bagby,   Alfred    137, 420, 458 

Bagby,  George  Franklin _ _ 137 

Bagby,   H.   A 147 

Bagby,  John   R 224, 332 

Bagby,  Richard  Hugh 137 

Bagwell,   R.   W „ _ 373 

Bailey,  C  T _ 158 

Bailey,    R.    R 396 

Baldwin,  Elisha  46 

BALDWIN,  NOAH  CALTON _ 46-48 

Baker,  Andrew  47 

Ball,    Dyer  _ _ 19 

Baltimore  Baptist,   The 142 

Banks,   H.   H 109 

Banks,  H.  S _ 89 

BAPTIST,  EDWARD  LANGSTON 424-426 

Baptist  Teacher,  The 360 

Baptist  Visitor,  The 72 

Baptist   World,   The ...  360 

Barker,  F.  M 350 

Earnhardt,  J.  A .._ 394 

BARNES,  JAMES   HENRY 229-230 

BARRON,  ALONZA  CHURCH 141-143 

Barton,  L.   E 51 

Battle    A    J  465 

Battle,  H.  W ....265, 322, 435 

509 


510  INDEX 

PAGE 

Bayard,  Thomas  F 62 

Baylor  University  „ 367 

BEALE,  FRANK   BROWN 147,  207-21 1 

BEALER,  GEORGE  B 479 

Beale,  G.  W 180, 207, 211, 325,  363, 403, 404, 434, 439,  503 

Beamer,   W.   H 268 

Beauregard,  General  26 

Bee,  Z.   E ...  481 

Bell,  T.   P ....34,468 

Berg,  John  _ 70 

Berkley,   F.    P 444,445 

Bessant,  C.  W _ 314 

Bethel  College 100 

Biblical  Recorder  122, 158, 390 

BlLLINGSLEY,    JOSEPH    FRANCIS _ 403-405 

Bitting,   C   C 298,429 

Bitting,  W.   C 63 

Bland,   W.    S _ 332 

Blevins,  N.  M 120 

Board,  C.  A 185 

Boatwright,  F.  W _....361,  369, 461 

BOATWRIGHT,    REUBEN    BAKER 161,  369-373 

Boggs,   Rev.   Mr. 65 

Bologna  University  198 

BOSTON,  FRANCIS  RYLAND 152,  282,311-313 

Boston,  S.  C _ 334 

Bowden,  J.  Theodore 50, 41 1 

Bowie,  Eddie  219 

Bowie,  James  54 

Boyce,   James   P 18, 20,  23,  35, 460 

Boyce,  Kerr  23 

Boykin,   S - 465 

Bradford,  Edward  A 61 

Bradford,  George 72,334 

Bradshaw,  J.  D 383 

Brantley,    J.    J 465 

Brantley,  W.  T 20 

BRAXTON,  THOMAS  CORBIN - 500 

Brewer,  J.  B ~ - 316 

Broaddus,  Andrew,  Sr 345 

Broaddus,  Andrew  210,494 

Broaddus,  Julian  161 

Broaddus,  W.  F 162, 215,  339, 397, 474 

Broadus,  John  A 88, 145, 168, 190, 205, 215,  393, 301 

Brooks,  C.  W 98 

Brooks,  Rev.  Mr 24 

Brown,  A.   B 92, 137, 183, 301 

Brown,  C.  C 124 

Brown,  G.  W - 314 


INDEX  511 

PAGE 

Brown,  H.  A „ 316 

Brown,  John  38 

Brown,  O.   B 475 

Brown,  Pleasant  92 

Brown,  T.  Edwin  _.  136 

Brown,  Thomas  P 366 

BROWN,  WADE  BICKERS ................154-155 

Bruce,  Silas  _ 155 

Bruner,  Weston  _ „ 118, 137 

Brunk,  J.  H ...  234 

Butler,  John  M _ 381 

Bucknell   University 1 10, 408 

Bush,  Andrew  _ 110 

Burrows,  J.  L 158, 214,  339,  350,  506 

Burrows,   Lansing  486,499 

BUCKLES,  WILLIAM  N _ 201-202 

Bundick    G    C  234 

Byerly,  F.  A _ 66 

Cabaniss,   A.   B ...  301 

Calhoun,  John  C.  .  54,  56 

Campbell,  D.  R ..  133 

Campbell,  C.  N 259 

CARPENTER,  J.   C 497 

Carpenter,  J.  T 66 

Carroll,  B.  H _ 221 

Carroll   J    L  215 

Caspari,  W.  C 161 

Central   Baptist,    The 80,  123 

Chaplin,   C.    C 182, 244, 498 

Chandler,   H.  J 89,109 

Chase,   Ira   504 

Chase,  William  _ 248 

Chase,  W.  H 395 

Chase,  William  Staughton 396 

Childrey,  J.  T.  M 280 

Christian,  Charles  88 

Christian,  Index,   The 123,  204,  221,  327 

Christian  Review,  The 191 

Cleveland,  Grover  62, 136 

Clifford,   John    H 61 

Clark,  A.  B 380 

Clark,  T.  D.  D ...  430 

Clark,  W.  Thorburn 330,411 

CLAYBROOK,  FREDERICK  WILLIAM 437-440 

Claybrook,  Richard  503 

Clopton,  James  104 

CLOPTON,   SAMUEL   CORNELIUS 104-107, 213 

Cocke,  C.  L 1 14 


512  INDEX 

PAGE 

COLEMAN,  JAMES  D 452-454 

Colgate  University 133 

COLLIER,  CHARLES  WELDON 435-436 

Collins,  Powhatan  E 257 

Columbian   College  49, 114, 136,  161,311,389 

Conant,  T.  J 20 

Cone,  W.  H 395 

Connally,  John  A 63 

Conwell,  Russell  H 280 

Cook,   David   256 

Cook,   J.    B 247 

Cook,  J.  J 165 

COOPER,  GEORGE 64,406 

Corey,  Charles  H 170 

Councill,  J.  G _ 133 

Craig,  D.  1 316 

Crawford,  Rev.  Mr 21 

CRIDLIN,  RANSELL  WHITE 38, 150, 332, 379-384 

Crowder,  Hosea  237 

Crozer  Theological  Seminary  147,179,279,285,409 

CURRY,  JABEZ  LAMAR  MONROE 53-64,214,259,260,262,265,340 

Cummings,  Henry  S 319 

Dabney,  George  E 182 

Dailey,  L.  E 391 

Daniel,  J.  R 502 

Darlington,  J.  J 117 

DAVIDSON,  JUDSON   CAREY .427-430 

Davis,  Isaac  314 

DAVIS,  JAMES  ALLISON 83-86 

Davis,    Jefferson    64, 265 

Davis,  Noah  K 198,254 

Davis,   Q.   C 391 

DAUGHTRY,  WILLIAM   BONNIE 411-412 

DEANS,   JOSEPH   FRANKLIN 49-52, 179,  381 

Decker,  W.  J 404 

Derieux,  W.  T 433,434 

DICKINSON,  ALFRED  ELIJAH 45,  66, 122, 166-176,  203,  332,  346,  382 

Dickinson,  C  R 308 

Dickinson,  J.  T 170,176 

Diggs,   Isaac   433 

Dix,  Levin  149,150 

Dixon,  A.  C _ 262,277 

Dixon,  James 205 

Dodd,  Charles  Hastings  410 

DODGE,  H.  W - 161, 162,474-476 

Dudley,  E.  E 52 

Duke,  C.  W 51,  319, 320,  321 

Dulin,  W.  B 147 


INDEX  513 

PAGE 

Dunaway,  A.  B - 51,249 

Dunaway,   Thomas   S 207,  345, 452 

Dunaway,  Wayland  F 207,440 

Eaton,  Dr 20 

Eaton,  George  N 61 

EATON,  T.  T 483-486 

EDMONDS,  RICHARD  HENRY 449-452 

EDMONDSON,  THOMAS  F 120 

EDWARDS,  RICHARD  179-180 

Ellett.  T.  H 396 

Ellyson,  Henry,  K 251,380 

ELLYSON    ONAN  _ 251-252 

Ellyson,  J.  Taylor  38,  311, 361,  372 

Elsom,  P.  G 66 

Epps,  Edward  245 

EUBANK,  ALEXANDER  - 67-68, 92, 393 

Evans,  A.  B 126 

Evans,  John  M 448 

Evans,  Thomas  B 125 

Evarts,  Wm.  L - 61 

Examiner,  The  199 

Farish,  William   P 144,301 

Farish,  C.  W - 396 

Farragut,   D.  G 61 

FAULKNER,  JOHN  KERR - 385-388 

Ferrell,  Peter  W :. 338 

Fellers,  L.  P - 94 

Fife,  James   _ 301 

Figg,  Royall  380 

Finn,  Daniel  W 54 

Fish,  Hamilton  - 61 

Fisher,  W.  F 51,299 

FLEET,  ALEXANDER  147,362-363 

Fleming,  Josh  53 

Fletcher,   J.    F - - 326 

FLIPPO,  OSCAR  PARISH 69-78, 150,482 

Folkes,  R.   A. 230 

Foreign  Mission  Journal - 199 

Foushee,  N.  B 90 

Franklin  College   55 

Franklin  College  (Indiana)  317 

Frazier,  Wm.  A - 145 

French,  J.  A - 203,213 

Fry,   C.    F 222 

Fuller,   Richard    21, 22, 23, 137, 462 

FUNK,    BENJAMIN 239-240 

FUNK,  TIMOTHY  _ 234-236 


514  INDEX 

PAGE 

Gardner,   C.   S 473 

Garland,  R.  D 318 

GARLICK,  J.  R 214, 345-347, 458 

Garnett,  W.  F.  G 245 

GATEWOOD,  THOMAS  BRECKENRIDGE 377-378 

Gaw,  B.  D 420 

Geddings,  Dr 24 

George,  Z.  Jeter _ 352 

Georgetown  College  100, 133 

GILBERT,   ROBERT   BABBOR 364 

Gill,  Mrs.  Everette  82 

Goodwin,  H.  J 230,440 

Goodwin,  A.  T 245 

Goode,  Ann  Spottswood  .    424 

Goode,  J.  K 51 

Goode,   Thomas   F „.    ..  425 

Gore,  Mrs.  S.  S 82 

Gordon,   Armistead  Churchill 53 

Gordon,  John  280, 409, 410 

Gordon,  John  Churchill  231 

Gospel  Worker,  The 159 

Grace,   E.   L ...  228 

Graham,  E.  K ...  341 

Grant,   U.   S .    61 

Graves,  R.  H ...  472 

Gray,  B.  D 472, 489 

Gray,  E.  H _ 416 

GREGORY,  ERNEST  THOMAS 103 

Gregory,  John  M 245 

Green,  Berryman  181 

Green,  T.  M 391 

Green,  W.  C 106 

Gresham,  William  A 61 

Griffith,   B 123 

Griesmer,  H.  A 329 

GRIMSLEY,  SIMEON  U _ 177-178 

GRIMSLEY,  THOMAS  F 154, 155,  365-366 

GWALTNEY,   JAMES    LANCASTER 501-502 

Gwaltmey,   R.   R 107 

Gwin,  D.  W _.  365 

Habel,   S.   T ...  402 

Hale,   P.   T _ 486 

Haley,  L.  J _ 247,  338, 404 

Hall,  Addison  249,450 

Hall,   Charles   A 132 

Hall,   T.   A 202,333 

Hall,  W 447 

Hamilton,  Sir  William 406 


INDEX  SIS 

PAGE 

Hamner,  John  .. 427 

Hampden-Sidney  College  43,  127 

Hankins,  Wm _ 268 

Hard,  Wm 24 

Hardaway,   J.    S 489 

Hardcastle,  E.  L 325 

Harding,  Aaron  100 

Hardwick,  Alvin 329 

Hardwick,  J.  B 381 

Hargrave,  J.  H 79 

Harris,   H.   H _. 64, 85, 145, 168, 214, 219,  338, 357 

Harris,  J.  H 66 

Harris,  Samuel  G 424 

Harris,  William    ("Father") 86,92, 114,350 

Harris,  William  B 365 

Harrison    Gessner  190 

Harrison!  J.   R iZiZZZZZZZ." I .".ZZZ.84,  85, 92 

Harrow,  John  W 161 

Hart,  A.  J 120 

Hart,  John  81,368 

HART,  JOSEPH  WASHINGTON _ 433-434 

Harvard,  University  _ 55.  56 

Harvey,  W.   P 486 

Harwood,  John  W 165 

HASH,  ALBERT  GRANT 326-327 

Hatcher,  E.   B _ _ 361 

Hatcher,  H,  E, 161 

HATCHER,  HARVEY 121-124,  182 

Hatcher   Jeremiah  ....  121 

HATCHER,  WILLIAM  ELDRIDGE 42,64,65,92, 100,158,182,228, 

294, 300, 304, 309, 348-361 

Hawkins,   E.    P 404 

HAWTHORNE,  JAMES  BOARDMAN 253-267, 368 

Hayes,   Rutherford   B 56 

HAYMORE,  R.  D 85,274-276 

Headley,  Wm 316 

HEALY,  NATHAN  ..  ...  503 

Hedley,  Wm „ 42 

Henderson,  Samuel    58 

Hendrickson,  Charles  R 450 

Henry,  Patrick  ~ 40 

Henry,  William  Wirt 39 

Hening    B    Cabell  147 

Henson,    P.    S 269,370 

Herndon,  C.  T 399 

Herndon,  Thadeus  97 

HESS    JAMES                                                                         .  163 

Hicks    J    E  489 

Hiden,  John  C - 218,  338, 435 


516  INDEX 

PAGE 

Hill,  A.  P 220 

Hill,  W.  A "  165 

Hines,  W.  P .".    51 

Hitchborn,  Mrs 19 

Hoge,  Moses  D 142 

Hollins  College  114,270 

Holman,  Russell  231 

Holmes,  J.  E.  L 214 

Holt,  A.  J 320 

Hopkins,  Dr _ 153 

Hopkins,  John  W 377 

Howard    College   59, 141,256,263,326 

Howell,  R.  B.  C 128,245 

HUME,  THOMAS,  JR 214, 219,  337-344,  385 

Hume,  Thomas,   Sr 109,  337,  381 

HUNDLEY,  JOHN   WALKER 178, 442-445 

Hundley,  W.  T 362 

Hunton,  Eppa „.    38 

Hutson,  J.   B 333,472 

Hutson,  J.   E 101 

I'Anson,   Vernon  ..                                                              ._.237, 238, 391 
Irwin,  C.  M _ 206 

AMES,  BENJAMIN  CARTER 164-165 

AMES,  CHARLES  FENTON 38-42,382 

ames,  F.  H 243 

ames,    John    C _ 219 

ames,   W.   C 303 

ackson,    "Stonewall"    169,  218, 221,  303 

_  efferson,  Thomas  39 

Jeffries,  James   135 

Jenkins,  Carter  Ashton  277,  420 

Jeter,  J.  B 30, 122, 128, 169, 214, 245, 300, 339,  340,  345, 353, 

357,491,492 

Johnson,   Fullerton   _ 245 

Johnson,   J.    L 219, 220,  301,  338,  339 

Johnson,   Lucius    Brutus 254 

Johnson,  T.  N 269,272 

Johnston,  Joseph  E 59,  229, 425 

Jones,  C.  G 85 

Jones,   Carter   Helm - 102, 224,  294 

Jones,    E.    P _ 250 

JONES,  FRERRE  HOUSTON 314-316 

JONES,  TAMES  E 330,  41 1 

JONES,  JOHN  WILLIAM 87, 161,218-228,338,339,396 

Jones,   Reuben    .450,451 

Jones,    Sam    75 

Jones,  Tiberius  Gracchus 301,450 

Judson  College  398 


INDEX  517 

PACE 

Kable,  Wm _.  385 

KEELING,  HENRY  _ 353,  504-507 

Keene,  T.  C 381 

KEMPER,  JAMES  FOLEY 287-288 

Kendrick,   Dr 20 

KENDRICK,  JOSEPH   B _ 374-375 

KERN,  I.  T _ ...  212 

Kerfoot,  F.  H ...  311 

Kerr,  John  385 

Kincannon,  C.  T 394 

Kincannon,  J.  T 48, 429 

King,  Judge  Mitchell 20 

KINGSFORD,  EDWARD  162,  353,  490-496 

Kirk,   Wm.    H 207,450 

Kline,  John   _ _ 220 

Knight,   Ryland   228 

Lacy,   B.  T ..  221 

Lacy,  John  H 183 

Lake,  I.  B 457 

LAMB,  JOHN  MOODY L27-129 

Landmark  Banner,  The 48 

LANCASTER,  JOHN  FRAZIER 273-274, 461, 473 

Landrum,  W.  W 102,361 

La  Rue,  Miss  Sarah    ...  326 

Lawless,  J.  L 411 

Laws,  William   _ 149 

Lawton,  Joseph   A _ 463 

Leas,  David  P ...  410 

Lee,  R.  E 35, 41, 169, 218, 221, 229 

Lee,  W    H    F  301 

Leftwich,  G.  W _ _ 92 

Leftwich,  George  M 396 

Leftwich,  James  _ 1 14 

LEONARD,  JOSEPH   _ 281 

LEWIS,  THOMAS  W _ 130 

Lewisburg   University    1 10 

Lindsay,    R.    S _ 396 

Logan,   David   183 

Long,  J.  C 215,244,  245 

Long,  James  _ 386 

Long,   Joseph    R 478 

Longanacre,  James  182 

Longfellow,  H.  W ."...._ .".IT.    56 

Longstreet,  Augustus  Baldwin 54 

Love,  J.  F _ 411, 473 

Love,  John  280 

Loving,  J.  B 368 

Lowell,  James  Russell  56 


518  INDEX 

PAGE 

Lowry,  W.  Joseph 259 

Luck,  J.  M 85 

LUCK,  JAMES  PASCHAL 392-394 

LUKE,  ISAAC  V 482 

Luke,  J.  M.  C _ 482 

Lunsford,   Lewis    91 

Lunsford,  Merriman  91 

LUNSFORD,   ROBERT  RHODAM ....91-93 

Luther,   J.   H 506 

Macalister,  Charles  61 

Madison,  James 39 

Madison   University   18,  20,  23,  407 

Maginnis,   Dr 20 

MAIDEN,  JAMES   FRANKLIN 94-96 

Mallory,  C.  D „ 54 

Mallory,  Richard  162 

Manly,   Basil,  Jr 80 

Manly,  Basil,  Sr _ 18 

Manly,  Charles  270 

Mansfield,  J.  W 83 

Margrave,  Wm.  G _ 371 

Martin,  F.  H 243 

MARTIN,  JOHN  W 298-299 

Mason,  Emmett,  J.,  Jr 497 

MASON,  SAMUEL  GRIFFIN 241 

Mason,  Otis  _ 136 

MASSIE,  SAMUEL  P 65, 298, 299, 441 

MAY,  ISAAC  NEWTON _ _ 367-368 

McArthur,  R.  S 261 

McCarthy,  John  380 

McCowN,  CHARLES  FRANKLIN 244 

McCowN,  JOHN  W 244-247 

MCDONALD  HENRY  99-101 

McDaniel,  George  W . 310,410 

McDufifie,  George  54 

McFarland,   R.  A 412 

McGuffey,  Wm.  H 190 

Mcllwaine,  Charles  P 61 

McLeod,  Duncan  _ 249 

McKerley,  Rev.  Mr 54 

McMillan,  W.  R 299 

McKinley.  William  „ 173 

MEADOR,  CHASTAIN  CLARK _ 114-119 

Melton,  Sparks  W 310 

Merrikin,  Richard  H 73 

MILBOURNE,   LODOWIC  RALPH _ _ 149-153 

Miller,  Thomas  P 416 

Mitchell,  J.  W 127,128 


INDEX  519 

PAGE 

Moffett,  John  R _ 318 

Moore,  F.  W 103 

Moore,  L.  W 332 

Montague,  J.  Adolphus  442 

Montgomery,  W.  A _ 429 

Morgan,  J.  Pierpont 419 

Morgan,  Rev.  Mr 70 

Morgan,  Stephen  E 245 

Morriss,  M.  M _ 155 

Mossy  Creek  College 465 

Mullins,  E.  Y 137,357 

MUNDEN,  NATHAN  M _ 89-90 

MUNDAY,  JAMES  ALEXANDER ...269-272 

MURDOCH,  JOSEPH  RVLAND 147-148 

Murray,  A.  S 326 

Murray,  J.   S 326 

Murrell,  Rufus _ 181 

Naff,  S.  L ..  250 

Nelson,   James   _ 136,  150,  31 1, 410 

NEWMAN,  THERON  WALLACE  _ 97-98 

Nicoll,  W.  J _ 413 

Nininger,   N.  T _ 74 

Norfolk  College  340 

NORRIS,   CALVIN   ROAH..._ „ 431-432 

Northam,  George  H 207 

Ogden,   Armistead   H 377 

Ogilvie,  John  _ 477 

Oncken,  J.  G ...  474 

Otey,  John   M 129 

OWEN,   AUSTIN    EVERETT 51, 156-160 

Owen,  Wm.  Russell 160 

PARRISH,   MADISON    E 277-278 

Pattie,   D.    M 132 

Pauling,   L.   D 150 

Peabody,  George  61, 63, 64 

Peale,    R.   E „ 426 

Pearcy,    George    104 

Pearcy,  J.   H _...  391 

PEARSON,  THOMAS  P 286 

Peck,  George  - 100 

PENICK,  WILLIAM    SYDNOR 122, 181-186,361,458 

Pennington,  G.   W 120 

PENNINGTON,   B.   P 480-481 

Perkins,   Jesse  Clopton 447 

PERRY,  JOHN  MAJOR 110-111 

Petigru,   James   Lewis 54 


520  INDEX 

PAGE 

PETTY,  HENRY  _ 108-109 

Peyton,   E.   G _ _ 66 

Pilcher,    J.    M 51,  52, 249,  396, 417, 435, 441 

Pitt,    R.    H 304,  361, 461 

Poindexter,   A.    M 183,  301,  304 

Pollard,  E.  B 102,140 

POLLARD,   JOHN   125, 135-140 

Pollard,  John  Mrs 105 

Pollard,  John  Garland _ 140 

Ponton,   A.  J 431 

Porter,  James  A _ 213 

Poteat,  E.   M _ 137 

Prince,   George  W 396 

Princeton   College 43 

Province,  S.  M 458 

Pullen,  John  500 

Pulliam,  Samuel  H .....182,351 

Purser,  J.  F 489 

8UARLES,   JOHN    RHODES 242-243 
uarles,  Charles  _ 242,301 

RAGLAND,   HUGH   DAVIS 421-423 

RANDOLPH,  JOHN  THOMPSON _ 144-146 

READ,   MARSHALL  W 79 

Reid,  Robert  -  275 

Religious    Herald,    The    40,65,85,106,113,122,126,127,169, 

172, 199, 207, 221, 244, 250,  278, 279, 295, 299, 305, 313, 
316, 319,  321, 360, 369, 372,  377,  382, 433, 434, 452. 

Renfroe,  J.  J.  D 59, 258 

REYNOLDS,  ALBERT  D 323 

Rhea,  William  Francis 217 

RHODES,   WALTER   

RICE,  ARCHIBALD  ALEXANDER 43-45 

Rice,    Benjamin   Holt 43 

Rice,  Samuel  W 56 

Richard,  J.  C 112 

Richmond    College   36,  38, 49,  51,  55,  59,  60,  63, 65,  67,  80,  100, 

103, 107, 121, 125, 141, 147, 154,  157, 159, 167, 168, 170, 
172, 179, 182, 190, 191, 192, 194, 195, 203, 207,  224, 231, 
237, 239, 244, 262, 269, 279, 285,  290, 298,  300,  308,  320, 
321,  330, 338,  339, 340,  345, 346,  351, 357,  363,  385,  395, 
396, 401, 408, 433, 442, 455, 456,  471. 

Riddick,  J.  T - 250 

Riggs,  Geo.  W 61 

Riley,  B.  F 253 

Ritter,  L.  M 329 

Rives,  Wm.   C ----    61 

Roanoke  Female   College 79,340 


INDEX  521 

PAGE 

Roberts,  T.  W _ 269 

Robinson,  John  135 

Rochester  University  _ 216 

Rockefeller,  John   D 63 

Rodgers,  Samuel  162 

Rodgers,  S.   B ...  320 

Rogers,  A.  E 73 

Roper,  David  _ m  505 

Rowland,  A.  J 410 

Royall,  W.  S 85,430 

Russell,  George  Peabody  .    61 

RYLAND,   CHARLES   HILL 45, 63, 147, 161, 182, 303,  361, 369, 

370,420,455-461 

RYLAND,  JOHN  WILLIAM  125-126,147,182,351 

Ryland,  Josiah   49 

Ryland,  Robert  152,  167, 182,351 

Ryland,   W.    S 338 

Sale,  W.  C ...  250 

SALLADE,  JACOB  279-280 

Samson,   G.    W 496 

Sanderson,  F.  N 92 

Sands,  A.  H 214 

Sands,    Wm _ 506 

Sandford,  John  H ...  248 

Sanford,   M.    F _ 250,  323, 383 

SANFORD,  ROBERT  BAILEY 248-250 

Sams,  Oscar  E _ 252,272 

Samson,  George  W 136, 340 

Savage,  W.  V 51 

SCOTT,  THOMAS   D _...  268 

Sears,  Barnas  61 

SELFE,  WILSON  V 376 

Senter,  D 47 

Senter,  N.  M 47 

Settle,  J.  J „ 477 

SETTLE,   VINCENT  THOMAS _ 477-478 

Seymore,  T.  L 250 

SHAVER,   DAVID  353, 498-499, 492 

SHEPHERD,  THOMAS   BENTON 161-162 

Shipman    T    J  361 

Shipman,    W.    J ."."..." ."." 88,  161, 335 

Shipp,   E.   G 167 

Sisk,  W.  W - 126,230 

Skinner,   T.    Clagett 472 

Skinner,  T.  E 465 

Skinner,  Thomas  ~97, 98 

Smith,  A.   B 332,492 

Smith,  G.   B 380 


522  INDEX 

PAGE 

Smith,    H.    C 335 

Smith,  J.  Worthington _ 477 

Smith,  Jasper  K 185 

Smith,  John  _ 129 

Smith,   S.   F 170,218 

Smith,  W.  H 473 

Smith,   W.    R.    L 228,287,372,397,488,489 

Snyder,  W.  A 52 

SNEAD,   GEORGE  HOLM  AN _ 300-310 

Solomon,  J.  B 158,213 

Southern   Baptist   Theological    Seminary 38, 65, 80, 103, 120, 

154, 161, 165, 204, 208, 219,  224, 287, 300, 393, 
396, 401, 410, 425, 428, 433, 437. 

Southern  Historical  Society  Papers _.  226 

Southwestern  Baptist,  The 258 

Sowers,   N.   0 81 

Sower,  The  199 

Spencer,  David  410 

Speight,  Henry  389 

SPEIGHT,  JOHN  ALEXANDER  389-391 

Speight,  T.  T 389,391 

Sprague,  T.  H 280 

Staley,  D 92 

Stevenson,  T.  J 102 

Story,  Judge _ 56 

STRATON,  HENRY  DUNDAS"  DOUGLAS 446-448 

Straton,   John   Roach 448 

Street,  J.   M 86 

Street,  W.  H _ 373 

Strider,  John  P 302 

STUART,    C.    E 202,284-286 

Sturgis,   C.  F 254 

Sumrell,  H.  A 185 

Swann,  George  42 

Tabb,  B.  West ...  456 

Tabler,  John  T 475 

Talbird,  Henry  280 

Taylor,   C.   T 96,120 

Taylor,  D.   G 268,273 

TAYLOR,   GEORGE  BOARDMAN _ 49,  87, 187-200, 218,  339,  397 

Taylor,    J.    B 26,168,188,300,301,353,466 

TAYLOR,  J.   B.,  JR _ 182,220,300-305,338,351 

TAYLOR,  JAMES  IRA 296-297 

Taylor,   J.   J 51,  274,  276,  290 

Taylor,  J.  L _ 28,273 

Taylor,  Mary  Argyle 200 

Taylor,  T.  J - 250 

Taylor,    W.    C 297 


INDEX  523 

.PAGE 

Taylor,  W.   H.... 370,371 

Teasdale,   T.    C 465 

Temple    University   _ 280 

Terry,   O.   L 364 

THAMES,  T.  B .42,487-489 

Thomas,  James,  Jr 59 

THOMAS,  JAMES  MAGRUDER _ 400-402 

THOMAS,  JOHN  RICHARD 413-414 

Thomas,  John  W - 264 

Thomas,   Wm.    D 220,339 

Thompson,   C.   M - 486 

THOMPSON,   S.   H 113, 165,317-318,320 

Thompson,   William   -  317 

Thornton,  Miss  Alice 401 

Timrod,  Henry  Hannibal ~ 20 

Todd,  Asa 415 

Toronto  University  - 407 

Toy,    C.    H _ _ 161, 220,  301 

Trevis,  Alexander  253 

TRIBBLE,   HENRY  WISE 319-322 

Truett,    Geo.   W 265 

TUCKER,   R.  ATWELL .65-66 

TUPPER,  HENRY  ALLEN 13-37,466 

Turner,  David  395 

Turner,   Joseph    A 182,351 

TURPIN,  JOHN  BROADUS 213-217 

Turpin,   Miles   104,213 

Tyree,   Cornelius   396,447 

Tyree,  W.  C ...... 66,316 

University  of  Chicago 194 

University  of  Georgia 55 

University  of  Virginia 144, 145, 168, 182, 183, 189, 190, 191, 

194, 198, 199, 218, 224, 226, 300, 301, 307, 321, 330, 339, 

350, 367, 385,  397. 
Upshaw,  Will  D ...  320 

Vaughan,  John  C 201 

Virginia  Military  Institute 225,  287,  302,  437, 439 

Waddell,  Moses  ..  54 

Waddill,   Edmund,  Jr _ 129 

Waite,  Rev.  Mr 70 

Walker,   J.   G 410 

Walker!  W.  L 142 

WALLACE,  ISAAC  f _ 245 

Wallace,    Rev.    Mr 70 

Walton,  L.  H _...._ 310 

Wake  Forest  College  270 


524  INDEX 

PAGE 

WARD,  JOHN  WYATT 133-134 

Warren,    L.    B _ 320 

Warren,  Patrick  334 

WARREN,   PATRICK  THOMAS 334-336 

Washington,  George  129 

Washington   and   Lee   University 224,  225,302 

Watchman,  The  199,200 

Watchman-Examiner,   The 360 

Watkins,   Haddon   361 

Watkinson,  M.  R 89 

Wayland,  J.  W 234, 239 

Wayts,  Willis   F 431 

Weaver,  James  325 

WEBB,    W.    R 237-238 

Webster,  Daniel  56 

Welford,  E.  T ...... 250 

Wharton,   H.   M 137,206 

WHARTON,  MORTON  BRYAN 203-206 

White,  Augustus  70 

White,   John    E 102 

Whitescarver,  W.  A 308,  340,  447 

WHITSITT,    WILLIAM    HETH 228, 290-295 

Whittinghill,  D.   G 198 

Wiatt,  W.  E _ 125,230 

Wilbur,  J.  M 280 

Wildman,  J.  W 86 

WILKINSON,   JOHN   ROBERT _ 332-333 

William  Jewel  College  288 

William  and  Mary  College 229,  424 

WILLIAMS,   GEORGE  FRANKLIN _ 415-420 

Williams,  H.  T 110 

Williams,  J.  W.  M 339, 

WILLIAMS,   WILLIAM    HARRISON 80-82, 122,  396 

WILLIAMSON,   ROBERT   282-283 

WILLINGHAM,    R.   J 303, 3.61, 462-473 

Willis,   E.   J 380 

WILLIS,  JOHN  MILTON 231-233 

Wilson,  L.  T 250 

Wilson,   Norvell 353 

WILSON,  M.  A 112-113 

Wilson,    William   L 136 

Wilson,  Woodrow  94 

Winfree,  D.  B -  332 

Winfrey,  E.  W - 288 

Winkler,  E.  T 479 

Winn,  S.  R 165 

Witherspoon,   T.   D 222 

Winthrop,   Robert   C 61,62 

Witmore,    Samuel    61 


INDEX  525 

PAGE 

Witness,  The  199 

Witt,  J.   D ..  161 

Wood,    M.    L 435 

WOODFIN,  AUGUSTUS   BEVERLY 380, 395-399 

Woodfin,   A.    P 380,396 

Woodson,    C.    A .    38 

Word  and  Way,  The 288 

Womble,  W.   F ..  316 

WRENN,  C.  E 289 

Yates,  Mrs.  Levi....  19 

Yoer,  Jacob  _ 14 

Young,  George 410 

Young,   William   M 361 


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